Why I woke up at 7:30 on a Sunday

Why I woke up at 7:30 on a Sunday

Apparently, there was an important soccer game going on.

Dave Eggers on America and the World Cup. By Dave Eggers

Here's funny and insightful article by Dave Eggers on why soccer is such a popular youth sport in the United States, but not so popular as a professional sport:

The beauty of soccer for very young people is that, to create a simulacrum of the game, it requires very little skill. There is no other sport that can bear such incompetence. With soccer, 22 kids can be running around, most of them aimlessly, or picking weeds by the sidelines, or crying for no apparent reason, and yet the game can have the general appearance of an actual soccer match. If there are three or four coordinated kids among the 22 flailing bodies, there will actually be dribbling, a few legal throw-ins, and a couple of times when the ball stretches the back of the net. It will be soccer, more or less.

Jon Udell: Earth to Google PR

A nice smackdown of a very common PR practice.

SmackBook Pro

This is almost too cool. You have to watch the video to get it.

Why I'm seriously considering a Mac as my next laptop

Here's a YouTube video of someone using a new Intel-based MacBook and two software applications, Parallels and Virtue, to easily switch between MacOS, Windows and Linux at native speeds.

Pretty slick -- and handy, to boot.

ScienceDaily: The Most Realistic Virtual Reality Room In The World

Oh how I would love to play Unreal Tournament 2004 on this thing.

Lose the clown

McDonald's wants to look more like Starbucks, according to this article in BusinessWeek. I went to a McDonald's for the first time in years a few weeks ago, and have to admit that they've really managed to turn things around. Paying with a debit card was quick and painless -- easier than cash, actually -- and they've revamped the menu with somewhat healthier items. (Of course, I still ordered a Big Mac and fries.)

Still, the photos in the article make it clear that they're ripping off Panera Bread, not Starbucks.

Fixed the RSS feed

How embarrasing. My RSS feed had been broken for a year. A longtime friend I hadn't seen in years pointed it out today -- which tells you how many people actually read this blog.

Thanks, Matt.

Gates doesn't want to be world's richest man - U.S. Business - MSNBC.com

Gates doesn't want to be world's richest man - U.S. Business - MSNBC.com

I've got a solution! I'll be happy to take a few billion off his hands.

Awesome

A bunch of pranksters dressed up as Best Buy employees, befuddling workers and management alike. This is their story.

Yahoo Go for TV

This media-PC software looked kind of interesting, but my ultimate reaction is the same as Jupiter analyst Michael Gartenberg:

What I don't understand is why Yahoo is spending the time and effort to do this. Microsoft's already much further ahead (from what I've seen of the download) and offers much better out of the box experience. There's no reason that Yahoo can't offer the unique services it brings to the table, like Yahoo Photos or Music via the MCE interface. This is one of those things where it just doesn't make sense to re-invent the wheel.

I agree. And the same goes for Yahoo's Music Engine. Why couldn't this have been a plug-in to Windows Media Player. Like we need another media manager to install.

More evidence that newspapers are clueless about the future

From Poynter, where a reporter talks about trying to find a story online:

So I went to Philly.com and searched for it.

You guessed it: It's not there. Or at least when I searched for it in their search box, it didn't come up. (You can only search Philly.com articles for the last seven days.)

Next step? Google.

I typed in exactly the same search command, and -- yup, you guessed it again -- up comes the article. From Philly.com.

Is something wrong with this picture? Indeed.

Visual Studio Express free forever!

Microsoft has extended its one-year deal to offer stripped-down versions of its Visual Studio tools, along with some cool code snippets.

San Francisco/Bay Bridge Night

Cool picture.

Google Calendar is live

And it's pretty slick.

Yahoo Maps adds satellite imagery

I wonder where Yahoo got that idea.

Is there anything vinegar can't do?

The Vinegar Institute - Uses & Tips

Freedom is on the march

From today's USA Today:

A man in Afghanistan is being prosecuted in a Kabul court and could be sentenced to death after being charged with converting from Islam to Christianity, a crime under the country's Islamic sharia laws, a judge said Sunday.

More Origami skepticism

From eWeek:
Ultramobile PC Is Already Teetering, Analysts Say

But, being neither a phone or PDA, nor a notebook is exactly the problem, Gartner analysts contend in a new report released on March 14. The first devices' mix of prices and features are not convincing enough to inspire wide adoption among consumers and businesses. Thus, unless changes are made that allow the devices to offer more features for lower prices, UMPCs could be destined for lackluster sales, the analysts wrote.

Light up animated Pac-Man bicycle wheels

Cool.