HP Gives away Macs as Prize for Contest

Check out this prize package that HP is giving away:

Grand prize package
One (1) winner will be selected on the basis of the criteria described above to receive a Grand Prize package consisting of the following:

15-inch PowerBook G4

Power Mac 5 GHZ [sic]

20-inch iMac G4

iPod Mini

Herman Miller office chair

Pantone Spyder Pro

Adobe® Creative Suite Premium Full

Mac OS X version 10.3 "Panther"

HP Designjet 130

HP Designjet 815mfp

HP Photosmart 7900 printer

HP Photosmart R707 digital camera

HP Graphics Media & Supplies kit

HP Digital Projector 6100

iPod is a registered trademark/trademark, and G5 is a registered trademark/trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. Adobe is a trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated.

Approximate retail value of Grand Prize package: $40,000.

Why wouldn't they give away their computers? Where can I get a 5GHz Powermac? (Those are my only two questions...)

R.I.P. Necko

My favorite cat for the last 14 years has succumbed to Cancer in his eye.








:-(

Alice Cooper Speaks Out Against Politicalization of Rock and Roll

From Brandon:

In the eyes of Alice Cooper, all the rock stars campaigning for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry are guilty of one thing: treason. The shock-rock legend, a staunch Republican who attends NBA games in Phoenix with Arizona Senator John McCain, was disgusted when he learned of plans by Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, R.E.M. and other bands to hold a series of concerts aimed at unseating U.S. President George W. Bush.

Referer Tracking

Apparently it isn't a precise science. I have been using Site Meter, and it has been doing pretty well for a while. I just added Blog Patrol, and I like the way it presents the information, and it gives some free stuff that sitemeter charges for. The problem is that Blog Patrol catches a lot of stuff that Sitemeter doesn't (Sitemeter requires someone to actually load the page that I entered when I signed up, BlogPatrol just requires you to load the script that it gives you, so when I am editing my template, and preview it, BlogPatrol adds a hit and Sitemeter doesn't.)

Blog Patrol is supposed to separate out search terms, and give you a list of them, and it seems to be missing them (I need to give it some more time to really check it.)

To ice the cake, I added ExtremeTracking which has lots of information, but doesn't present it very well...

I'll report back when I have decided which to go with. (I'm leaning towards Sitemeter and Extremetracking together...)

Bald Dog and a One-Eyed Cat

My pets are falling apart. My dog has some kind of allergy or something and seems to have psoriasis... She is losing lots of her hair and scratches all the time. When we comb her she has major dandruff. My mom and I have been bathing her with Head and Shoulders, and even Nutrogena T/Sal to see if we can't help her out. It seems to have helped a little, but she still has lots of scabs.

My cat is going to have surgery on Wednesday to take out his right eye. He lost most of his vision in that eye after a rottweiler used him as a chew toy for about 5 minutes. This summer he got in a fight and it got scratched really bad. We have been cleaning it and putting antibiotic stuff on it, but it hasn't improved. The vet thinks that all the swelling might be due to a tumor, so he's gonna remove it. I was surprised to find out how cheep animal surgery is, I thought it would be in the hundreds of dollars, but it is just going to be $85!

The funny thing about all of this is that my cat (Neko is his name) has received about as much love these last two months as he has the rest of his 14 years put together. Even though he smells really bad, and has a big ugly oozing eye, he has been moved inside, and we pick him up at least twice a day to clean his eye. After I'm done, my mom holds him and pets him for 2-3 minutes.

My dog (Blue Jazz) has also received more love this summer, at least from me. The last few years she has been having these alergies, but not nearly as bad. I didn't really know what was going on, but every time I pet her, I always felt like I had to wash my hands (partially from the dandruff, but also because she rolls in lots of little animals that she kills) so I kinda stopped going out to pet her when I was home from school. Now that I know it is just allergies (and now that she has stopped killing things, she just rolls in stuff that dies naturally, which doesn't happen much) I go out and pet her all the time (and give her a good scratching too :-) .)

the new icon is for posts about animals and pets and stuff

Thumbs Down for Larry Brown

This isn't just because Donnie is President of Basketball Operations for my favorite team...

When pressed by a reporter Thursday about why Team USA's coaching staff doesn't include someone with more international experience, someone like Mavericks president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson, Larry Brown took offense.
"He has enough trouble coaching Dallas," Brown said.

1. Donnie isn't a coach in Dallas.
2. Who the h3ll is Larry Brown? Does winning one NBA Title let you talk about anyone however you feel like?


Note to Larry:

Nelson has participated in the last three Olympiads as an assistant coach for Lithuania. In each of those games, the Lithuanian Team earned the bronze medal. Under his leadership, they won the silver medal in the 1995 European Championships. He also served as a scout for Dream Team II, which captured the gold medal at the 1994 World Championships

New Post Icons

I'm going to be putting icons in front of each of my posts... this is what they mean:

• This post is about Technology, usually non internet related.



• This post is about something relating to the internet.



• This post relates to my favorite computer company: Apple Computer



• This post is just a general rambling by me, or relating to me and my life.



• This post is about Christianity, or Religion



• This is when I hand out a "Thumbs Down" to a company or celebrity... you don't want one of these, it follows you around, haunting you until you leave public life, a hollow, broken, shell of a man (or company.)
  Diagram that sentence!



• This is a post about my favorite, non Dr. Pepper beverage, Tea



• This Post is about pictures (not including actual pictures, those will just have the picture in them, probably bigger than this icon.)



• This post is about a movie I saw.



• This post is about sports... (probably going to get a new icon for that one :) )

All of these icons are subject to change... I aspire to have blog software that lets me link these icons to a page that will let you read all my posts on one subject, and maybe even lets me put the icons in easier.

Audioscrobbler

I've been using Audioscrobbler for a while, and have been able to see it mature into a very neat website. You download a plugin that uploads the songs that you play to the audioscrobbler site. Their server takes this information and puts it in a database, and uses your listening habits to form recommendations, and also connects you to people who listen to similar music.

They have plugins for:

• AmiScrobbler (MorphOS)


• QCD


• SlimScrobbler


• Winamp


• Windows Media Player 9


• XMMS


• beepmp


• foobar2000


• iTunes (Mac)


• iTunes (Windows)

New Harddrive

I just got my new LaCie 250 GB HD to replace my Maxtor that literally burnt out... came in one day and the thing was too hot to touch (and I can touch pretty hot things) Ever since then, the drive has been pretty shady, losing whole files and stuff...

Well, I goofed and accidently ordered a USB only drive, thinking it was a USB/Firewire drive. I don't have 2.0, so this thing is slower than Keanu Reeves on the uptake... (yes, that took me about a minute to come up with...)

I have begun naming my drives after famous horses... Bucephallus, Bellepheron, War Emblem, Rozinante... this one is Man o' War for now, but if anyone can think of a horse that was touted to be the best, and ended up with an embarassing loss (for a race horse) or getting its rider killed (for a war horse) I'd like to name this one after it...

I will have to try to save up and upgrade my computer (I'm only one generation out of having USB 2.0) or talk someone into inventing a USB to Firewire converter...

iDisk stoppage

My iDisk has stopped working completely, and in so doing has brought to the forefront of my mind one of the annoying things I find in using OS X.

All the time I click on a button, or select a menu, and get no feedback at all. I have to wait 10 minutes to figure out if the command I selected is just taking a while, or if NOTHING FREAKING HAPPPENED. Sorry.

This morning I have selected Finder>Go>iDisk>My iDisk about 20 times... I haven't been connected to my iDisk, and I haven't been told there was an error. Very frustrating.

I selected "Sync Now" in the contextual menu (wait a second... I thought the Human Interface Guidelines said that no contextual menu item should only be in the contextual menu... guess we just skipped that one Apple) about 10 times, and have received 2 error messages. Does that mean there are 8 processes trying to select that haven't run into an error yet, or is this just a stupid bug?

Once my iDisk is back up, that little blue question mark, or red x or "image not loaded" symbol at the top should load... until then... **Thumbs Down Apple**

Hero

As good as it is (just finished watching it,) I predict that it won't be a big hit in the US... Or, at least, it won't be properly appreciated here.

Can you get ahead by giving up your place in line?

Should we give from our excess, or from our lack? Countless times in the Bible Jesus talks crazy. We are called to do things that will obviously put us in second place. If we want to be great in the kingdom of heaven (which isn't a place you go after you die, it is here and now) you have to be the servant of all. We are supposed to sell all we have and give it to the poor (what are we, commies?) How many of these things are in line with the "American Way?"

Sure, we try to explain them away, soften the radical Jesus into a Patriotic Capitalism-Loving Jesus (And I'm not putting down Patriotism, or Capitalism) But Jesus was not either of those. As Christians we are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven (Kingdom... that's anti-Democracy!) Ambassadors to our country of residency. We are called to not build up treasure on earth, but treasure in heaven. Money can accomplish many things on the Earth, but without God we (and it) can do nothing.

When you are late, let an extra car in front of you. Descartes says you will be even later, but Jesus says you will be doing God's work (you may be later, or you might end up at your location on time... remember, all things work for the good of those who love Christ Jesus.)

Sorry this was a little scatter brained... If something isn't transparent, ask a question in the comments, I'll see if I can clear it up. (Also, If I'm wrong about something, tell me, I want to know)

Records Fall Left and Right

Mark Teixeira hit for the cycle... only the second Ranger to do that (the other was Oddibe McDowell, also against the Indians.)

Gary Matthews Jr. hit a Home Run, giving the rangers 10 players who have hit at least 10 home runs (ties ML record.)

Scott Erickson got his first win in 2 years.

Doug Brocail got his first save in 4 years.

Buck Showalter got his 700th win.

Pretty exciting game for Texas.

You can smell the desperation...

Or "When faux grassroots movements go bad"

• Check out Real's Freedomofmusicchoice.org, which is basically a gathering place for all anti-Apple music articles...


• "Freedom" of choice...
  Sorry, you can't load the page if you are using a Mac... Real will probably be losing about $.40 per song in their new going-out-of-business sale...


• Their online petition: "Hey Apple, Don't Break My iPod" reads as follows:
  

  To:  Apple Computer
  Dear Apple,
  
  Your company has long stood for innovation and open competition. Wasn't it Apple that ran the famous Super Bowl ad encouraging consumers like us to stand up for our right to make our own choices? We're asking that you do the same now and support the right of your own customers to make their own choices about where they buy music for the iPod. We want Freedom of Music Choice! Don't lock us in to purchasing digital music from one source. That's bad for competition. It will stifle innovation. And it will slow the adoption of digital music devices like the iPod.
  Do the right thing. Stand with us for Freedom of Music Choice!
  
  Sincerely,
  The Undersigned
  

  
  Of the undersigned, so far, I have only seen one positive comment... and that was from Rob Glaser. The funniest thing is that the Apple Store is not the only source for songs for the iPod... but Real doesn't want you to think about buying CD's or anything...


• :-D



• Endgame

  
  This article details the lst gasps of Real's efforts.

  When we started this morning, we had (the ability to post and read) comments on the petition, but we felt there was a vocal minority coming to the site that would intimidate others from actually learning about the freedom of choice in music

  
  --Real's Spokesman Erika Shaffer

Personality Type Test

free enneagram test

Heh... thanks Jordon.

I took the test, and I tied between The Reformer and The Loyalist.

I got similarly high scores on The Investigator, The Enthusiast, The Challenger, and The Peacemaker

In fact, the only one's I didn't get many answers on were The Helper, The Acheiver, and The Individualist.

The Peace that Passes Understanding...

God doesn't give me the ability to comprehend why the horrible, or great, or anywhere-in-between event that just occurred in my life is the best thing for me. I don't have to see the whole chain of events that causes this specific event to "work together for the good of those who love God."

All I get is the Peace that Passes Understanding. In good times and in bad, and even in the in-between times, I am at peace. Lots of times I forget it, I even try real hard some times to upset this peace, but I have it.

I don't understand it, but I have it...

Olympic Medal Tracker

If you didn't notice, you can keep track of the top 10 medal winning countries with the Medal Tracker on my sidebar... (it is below the pictures.)

I hardly noticed the olympics were starting... seems so late this year.

Rusty Saw
Originally uploaded by Dwight.

To all you HTML gurus out there...

who read my blog...
and want to give me free advice...

If you are still reading, I'd like to put an image in that little box up there that says "Dwight::Knoll The "K" is not silent"... you know, kinda a background image... I can host it myself, but I'm to lazy to figure out how to do it...

If you wanna figure it out and tell me how... I'll... uhh... buy you a beer next time I see you, and you are over 21.

(Should probably call this post FREE B33R !!!!!!!!!!1111

Platform Licensing

Good article from John Gruber about Apple and Licensing:

This idea has been repeated so often by so many sources that today, most people, even Mac users, simply take it at face value: If only Apple had licensed the Macintosh, they could have been Microsoft.

But this is not a fact. It’s conjecture, and barring a time machine, it can never be proven. But even if you could go back to 1984 and show Apple’s then-executives a glimpse of the future and the Mac’s eventual market share — merely “licensing” the Mac very likely would not have made a difference. In fact, in an alternate universe where Apple had licensed the Macintosh or Mac OS in the mid-80s, things could have ended up worse for Apple, as in bankrupt-and-out-of-business worse.

The Everyman Photo Contest

Just entered. Sent in the pic of the wedding decorations and the pic of the horny toad.

(thanks to Jordon Cooper for the link)

Alternatives to Google

I like Google for most searches, but there are some good engines out there that can help for more specific searches.

• A9 combines google search with Amazon's "search inside the book*"


• Dictionary.com is better when you are just looking for the definition of a word. (Also check out Thesaurus.com.)


• Mark Cuban (owner of The Dallas Mavericks) has a start-up competitor with Google that looks interesting called icerocket

Give some of these a try...

* search inside the book is very helpful for when you are writing a paper... it basically provides a free exhaustive concordance of any of the books which have this option enabled.

Simultaneous Development

Blizzard Entertainment Does Mac and PC At Once, and all the major gaming developers should take a page from their book.