Sigh...Update your Facebook Privacy Settings again: Instant Personalization

Facebook has made it their goal to make as much of your personal information public knowledge as possible. Today I started to play around with Yelp and the other sites that take part in the instant personalization. At first, I kind of liked the concept but quickly got burned out of it and saw it as yet another way of Facebook trying to force feed private information to a public sector. Hence, once again, time to adjust your privacy settings.

What it does?
In a nutshell, it lets people know your activity on other sites. The problem, if you wanted people to know what you were doing on other sites, wouldn't you make that part of your status updates, etc.? Yes, yes it would. But in its need to take over the Internet, Facebook has made it so that your friends can see your activity on Yelp, Microsoft Docs, and Pandora (with more coming I am sure).

Turn it off
- Go into your Facebook account and hover over 'Account'
- Click on 'Privacy Settings'
- Click 'Application and Websites' (NOTE: Websites is spelled wrong, it should be spelled Web sites)
- Click 'Edit Settings' to the right of 'Instant Personalization Pilot Program'
- At the bottom, uncheck 'Allow select partners to instantly personalize their features with my public information when I first arrive on their websites.'

That should do it. Now your Yelp activity will be your own.

A Great NES Game You Probably Never Played: Shadow of the Ninja

UPDATE 2: Shadow of the Ninja just arrived via the USPS. Works fine and is just as awesome as I remember. I will keep you up-to-date on my progress.
UPDATE: I won Shadow of the Ninja off eBay...so the battle of wits has begun.

It was a cold Saturday morning in 1990. I was working as a phone counselor for FCI and studying my little driver's manual since I was three weeks away from taking my driver's test (which I passed...<kool aid voice>oh yeah</kool aid voice>).  Ed Semrad of the EGM fame was the only other person to come into the office that day and walked down and asked me to give a new NES game that came in overnight a try before I left for the day.

Since the Genesis and TurboGrafx were the big systems to play at the time, I rolled my eyes at the thought of playing an NES game.  But, I took Natsume's Shadow of the Ninja and popped it into the NES and was taken aback.  I was actually playing an 8-bit game in the 16-bit era (while given, in its infancy but still) that was pretty damn good. 

The two things that I noticed right away: it was like Ninja Gaiden and Castlevania had a little too much drinkie, drink and spawned a Shadow of the Ninja love child; and it was freakishly difficult.  That being said, the game itself was fun as hell to play and showed some of the best graphic, playability, and sound capabilities the NES had to offer.  I mentioned to Semrad my thoughts about Ninja Gaiden and Castlevania getting it on and he said he had heard that there were a few ex-Konami workers now working for Nasume.  If that was true or not, I have no idea - just passing on what the man told me.  But, back to the game, I thoroughly enjoyed it but had to admit, I didn't get too far (did I mention the game was freakishly hard for one-player) until the following week when I was able to play with a coworker in two-player mode.  It was at that time that I was able to get a good portion of the way through it but never completed.

Fast forward twenty years and I am sitting at my desk in my office coding a Web application, listening to last night's 'Daily Show', and for some unfathomable reason Shadow of the Ninja popped into my head.  I thought back and realized that I never went back to complete it.  Let's be honest, the Genesis, TurboGrafx and Super Nintendo took precedence over an old, while good, NES game.  I thought of how good the game was and wondered about its reception when it was released nearly a year later.  By the time of its release, I had left FCI and was worried more about being a high school junior than about the eventual future of this Natsume product. 

I did a little Web searching and didn't see much about it.  I found a few reviews that went either way, GameTrailers did a nice Video Game Vault about it, and that was about it.  It seemed to fall between the cracks since most hardcore gamers would have moved onto the 16-bit consoles and it was too difficult for the casual gamer that stuck with their NES.

Since I had a habit over the last decade to more or less purchase any retrogame I could get my hands on, when I went home for lunch I looked and noticed I didn't have Shadow of the Ninja.  I was bummed.  I was going to make it my conquest this week.  I decided I still needed to take it on so eBay I went and placed a bid on it.  Hopefully it will be mine (and if you read this in the next hour and outbid me, I hate you).  For those gamers who enjoy a tough retrogame that you probably never played, keep your eye out for Shadow of the Ninja.  I think that you will find it a worthy addition to your collection. 

Was this technically a game review or a nostalgic look back at my life?  I have no idea...perhaps an early onset of Alzheimer's.

411 on the New Facebook 'Like' Functionality

As you probably have noticed Facebook has changed rather drastically to incorporate it's new 'Like' function across the net. Users of Facebook know how to use 'Like' when looking at status updates, links, pictures, etc. but now Facebook is tackling the ability to use the function across the Internet.

I delved into some of the changes that are going on and here is a quick 411 of what they are doing.

- Like Web page articles
It won't take long for pages to slowly acclimate the 'Like' button into their pages so that you can let all of your Facebook friend's know that you liked a certain article. For example, just a moment ago I was reading a CNN article about home sales actually improving and I gave a quick 'Like' at the bottom of the article. Since I was logged into Facebook, it knew that I had stated that and my Facebook page updated to let all of my friends know that I liked the article and gave a link for them to click to read the article (where have I seen a very similar function…oh yeah, it was called retweeting in Twitter, but I digress).

- Link your profile information to pages instead of searching
At this point, I am not a fan of this function but we will see if it will grow on me. As part of this 'Like' movement, Facebook is going to force you to take the information that you put in your profile and convert it to pages that may or may not be in the Facebook network. What this basically means, if you are in your 'Profile' and click on 'Info' any of your interests, employment history, and education information that is clickable now takes you to a Facebook page instead of searching Facebook. For example, I went ahead and clicked on the college I went to under my information. This used to search the college and the year that I graduated to display the people who also went there and graduated that same year but instead it now takes me to a page that hasn't been created yet, the college page with my graduation year. Searching the college and the year I graduated was actually a rather helpful tool since people were constantly joining Facebook, I could browse new people who I may have known from college. Now, I just go to some page that has no information whatsoever but it may if someone takes the initiative to make the page and people join it and make it a separate community. In order to do the search for my college now I have to click 'Find People' at the bottom and then scroll down and click the college. Yes, it follows the three-click rule and yes, it isn't a big deal but now I have to retrain myself and I hate that.

- No more fans
This isn't really much of a difference in my mind (even though there are already dozens of groups complaining about it) but pages now use different verbiage when joining them. You used to 'Become a fan' now you 'Like' it. No real big deal.

The big downside
While I don't really see this as being anything new, pretty much every article on the Web has a retweet button for Twitter users to pass it on to their Twitter followers, it is bringing a larger audience to the table to spread information. Seeing as there is, oh nearly 500 million logins a month on Facebook, a good article could really gather some steam (hint…hint…tell your friends, see my little 'Like' button below) which is great news for blog writers and other sites. Once a plug-in that automates WordPress and the like comes out, you will see the 'Like' button everywhere - you can add it now rather easily per page just through a Facebook wizard. That being said, the biggest downside I see is if this takes off I will be scrolling through pages upon pages of 'So and so likes CNN', 'So and so likes GeekyClown', 'So and so likes whatever'. I already have to scroll through a bunch of crap I don't care about that I don't want to hide just in case there is something interesting every once in awhile, now adding 'Like' is adding insult to injury. Oh well, all is fair in love and Facebook's world domination…

Alright, What's the Deal with Internet Explorer 8 and Flash?

I got a call this week from a user having trouble using one of our Flash presentations online. I quickly brought up the troubled presentation and it looked fine but I was in Google Chrome. Well, there would be no way that IE8 would render Flash incorrectly or I would have heard about it, right? Nope. Sure enough, the Flash presentation took up half of the screen and looked inconsistent.

Pissed off, I walked down to help desk to see if they had gotten calls on this or if I just happened to be the first lucky schmuck to answer my phone with this issue. Sure enough, they said that they have heard rumbling about this and just used the 'Compatability button' as the fix. The compatibility button? As I think about it, WTF?!? It never occurred to me the insanity of that. Did the developers of IE8 decide to throw their hands in the air at the thoughts of making the browser compatible with existing sites? Is this the first they have heard of a Web site called Facebook and its 500 million unique logins a month?  They realize that those Facebook users play games and those games are Flash driven, right?  Who builds in a compatibility button? When in doubt, hit the button? Are you kidding me?

I have heard my share of Microsoft accusations and complaints. Recently I heard about Microsoft's XBox controller factory treating Chinese teens like prisoners (read the story) to them being unable to keep up with the times in terms of ingenuity (is it any secret that Apple and Google are running rings around them) to them simply unable to produce quality products (Vista anyone). In my opinion, all of that pales in comparison of the need for a compatibility button. That is like telling users, "we know that we can make our browser compatible on the build, but that would require further effort and we don't want to do that, so anytime that your page doesn't render correctly, just hit this magic button and IE8 becomes IE7."

I have read several solutions to this issue. The one that I have put in our documentation is to tell users to click on Tools > Internet Options > Security tab > reduce security to medium. That seemed to solve the issue. It sounds better than, "just clicking the freaking compatibility button." That makes it sound like we actually programmed incorrectly.

So Microsoft, as a developer I am now thrilled that I no longer just have to make workaround coding for your buggy Internet Explorer 6 browser but also have to keep an eye out for your newer, buggy Internet Explorer 8 browser. Thanks!

3 Facebook Status Updates Sure To Annoy Invigorate Your Friend’s

Not too long ago, I mentioned the enjoyment I, along with all of your Facebook friend's, receive when you inundate every status update with political discussion (Geeky Rant – Politics in Facebook: Political Podium or Friend Offender http://geekyclown.com/?p=940 ) but left out a few other's that we all enjoy. Here are three more things that you should post constantly to annoy the shit enhance your Facebook friend's experience online.

- Talk about God in every post
People love this. While some may think that each individual has a right to choose their own theological beliefs, they are wrong. There is truly only one God and only one true belief - and that is your belief. Let us know. Quote scripture, change your profile picture to your favorite religious emblem, and take full advantage of the ability to post links, video, and pictures. We enjoy feeling like we are in church every time that we open up Facebook, it is invigorating.

- Let us know how much you love your husband/wife/girlfriend/boyfriend
You have the perfect significant other and it should be shouted from the roof tops so the world knows. Now, if it is your anniversary or if they just got a promotion, that is reason to post a nice endearing message. But, who needs a special event, post daily how perfect you think that they are and how magical your life is with them. While some may think that you may be masking some sort of inner issues by having to use each and every single post to remind us how lucky you are, damn the naysayers. Let us know ad nauseam.

- Quote those song lyrics with every post
Every once in awhile I may have a song in my head and just go ahead and quote it but I don't take nearly the time or put forth the effort that I should. I love reading your song lyrics each update. I know that you love 50's Be-Bop and I look forward to reading the profound words of that era each and every time I log in. "I love you darlin'/Baby, you know I do/But I've got to see this Book of Love/Find out why it's true." It's like poetry in motion. Song lyrics are the thoughts and dreams of some of the world's most profound poets put forth to melody and you should post the words alone and leave the melody to our minds.

20 Robot Chicken Video Game Parodies

UPDATE - The Legend of Zelda link should be working again.

As a huge fan of Robot Chicken, I thought I would pay homage to them by posting 20 of their video game parodies (in no particular order, picking a favorite Robot Chicken parody is like picking your favorite child - actually picking your favorite child is easy, it's like picking your favorite beer). Enjoy!em

20.) Coal miner love (Dig Dug)

---

19.) Finally know how to slow that Sonic down (Sonic)

---

18.) Toad's the Best (Mario Kart)

---

17.) Have to play the geeky card here and say that Space Invaders didn't have enemies that flew down, that was Galaga...Robot Chicken fail (Space Invaders/Galaga)

---

16.) WTF?!? (Joust)

---

15.) Mario's concern about the gas prices (Donkey Kong)

---

14.) The future of video games (Grand Theft Auto attempt)

---

13.) I actually kind of figured this is how The Legend of Zelda ended (Legend of Zelda)

---

12.) nOOb Excitebike rider (Excitebike)

---

11.) PacMan doing his best Keanu (PacMan)

---

10.) Office politics with a twist (Mortal Kombat)

---

9.) I actually think that Dragon's Lair may have been more interesting with this storyline (Dragon's Lair)

---

8.) Adventure still sucks (Adventure)

---

7.) Donkey Kong doesn't have a chance against the guys from Halo (Donkey Kong/Halo)

---

6.) I would play this over Dance Dance Revolution or Parapa the Rapper any day (Parapa the Rapper)

---

5.) Ahhh...humping robot (Wii fit)

---

4.) Frogger+Burnout=Win (Frogger)

---

3.) This would make a great minigame in the Final Fantasy universe (Final Fantasy VII)

---

2.) An inspiring story of Johnny Cage's recovery from a near fatal fatality (Mortal Kombat)

---

1.) Grand Theft Mario - an add-on for San Andreas? (Super Mario Bros./Grand Theft Auto)

---

Extra - absolutely nothing to do with video games but if you watch this and not laugh, you have no soul.

Dear eBay Sellers, Clean your Games before you Sell them - Savages!

It happened twice this week. I won an old school video game from eBay and became stoked at the thought of a new breed of retrogames in the mail for me to conquer. Waiting the usual week for the game to come in, I hope for a great game. I fight with all of my might to avoid reading online reviews so I can make a decision on the game's merit myself. The day of reckoning arrives, I get it out of the package run it to my video game layer, throw it in the required console, and it starts up for a few seconds and bombs. NOOOO!!!!

I pull it out of the console and throw it in a pile listed as GFY (Go Find Yourself (polite form)) and decide that I will get to cleaning it later, after I go and give a negative rating to the seller for selling a product that doesn't work - especially heinous are those sellers who claim they tested it - liars! I understand and support caveat emptor and know that 9 out of 10 times I will be cleaning eBay games either way since I don't trust shady sellers. That being said, come on...grab some rubbing alcohol and a QTip and take two minutes of your time to clean what you are selling.

What happens if someone buys it that doesn't know how to clean their games? Please eBay sellers, think of the children weeping when they are unable to get their games to work. Take some pride in what you are selling. You most likely already ripped off more than one buyer with overpriced shipping.

Oh well, time to end my rant, grab my Qtips and get my new Genesis game working.

Bonk's Adventure on the Virtual Console: Give his Big Melon a Chance

When it comes to video game mascots of the fourth gen consoles, why does Bonk always seem to get the shaft? All you ever hear about is Sonic and Mario. Are the Geico commercials right and the world is prejudiced against large headed cave boys just like hairy cave men?

Alright, quick synopsis, Princess Za was kidnapped by the evil King Drool very similar to the Princess being kidnapped by Bowser - a bit unoriginal. Bonk has to go and save her by using his meteorite sized head clocking dinosaurs and other bad guys with it - a little bit more original. He didn't have the speed of Sonic and couldn't jump on enemies like Mario but c'mon, he had a huge freaking head!

Bonk's Adventure was, to a certain extent, doomed from the start being released to the TurboGrafx-16. I bought the TG-16 when it came out and was happy with it as a whole. Legendary Axe, Blazing Lazers, and Alien Crush are all pretty good games but the console didn’t have the necessary iconic game until Bonk's Adventure. And, if you think Keith Courage qualified, pour me a shot of whatever it is you are drinking.

The problem wasn't the game, the game was awesome. The problem was no one had a TG-16. Poor Bonk never was played much because the TG-16 was a marketing disaster and really never stood much of a chance. Originally, since the PC Engine was an enormous hit in Japan, it made perfect sense for an American release to compete with the NES.

However, that never really happened. Everyone had an NES. Switching to another console was a tough decision after forking over the dollars for the NES and investing in its library. The TG-16 showed off some impressive graphics but it never wooed gamers like the Genesis would eventually do. In a lot of ways I think of the NES like Facebook, people got real comfortable with it and even the thought of something else never sat well with them. It was the layman's console.

The Genesis would eventually be considered the gamer's console while the part-timers kept their NES and eventually would move onto the Super NES leaving the poor TG-16 to fall into obscurity. Even after the CD-ROM showed the potential of what the system could do, the HUGE price tag turned people off even more. It was as if it were born to fail.

But, what does that do for my cave boy with the impenetrable melon? Will he ever have his day in the sun? Bonk's Adventure hosts strong game play, good graphics, and some of my favorite gaming scenery of that era (swimming in the intestine is a personal favorite). But would gamers who are hesitant to play retrogames in the first place give up the time and Wii Virtual Console credits on Bonk?

My recommendation as a teen during the fourth gen days, take advantage of Bonk and his head banging style and give him a try. I put him on my 'Classic Game Console Curriculum – Through 1995 - http://geekyclown.com/?p=574' for a reason and my recommendation, give him a chance. Spend the credits and get this poor head butting soul a home - I think you will be happy you did.

ColdFusion: Share Variables Among Multiple Application Files

A classic case of over thinking...

The scenario: I am creating a simple tracking system in ColdFusion that follows a user to each of the different services my site offers. I had an application.cfm file off of the root of the site. This application file grabs the user's basic information through the log in. Part of that basic information is a unique number that identifies the user. It was this unique number that I was going to use to 'follow' the user from subdirectory to subdirectory.

My initial thought was to simply put an application.cfm file in each of the subdirectories that the user would go to and it would write a record to a database. The problem, I kept getting a 'variable is undefined' error whenever I would try to call up the unique number in the subdirectory's application.cfm file. I took my late afternoon on Friday and this morning mad searching the Internet to try to figure out how to do this. I came up with all of these elaborate methods of parsing the variable. I tried making a session variable, a URL variable, and setting it as a cookie. Each one ran into the same error.

All of my searching came up fruitless. "No one had this issue before," I thought beginning to get frustrated. While I was writing this little system, I was also responding to e-mails from someone I was training some of the basics of ColdFusion. In one of the e-mails I gave a quick synopsis of my frustration. Her answer was a simple, "why don't you just do an include of the root application.cfm file in the other application files?"

It was brilliant in its simplicity. Sure enough, it worked like a charm. Using a virtual path lets me put the application.cfm in each of the different directories. I was ruined by a classic case of over thinking. I am sure every ColdFusion developer who is reading this is thinking, "yeah, you're a genius, I would have thought of that within seconds." Bbut in case there is anyone else running into this issue in the world, there is now one page on the Internet that will come up when running the search and you may avoid a hair of frustration.

Webmaster Google Chrome Extension Must Have - Chrome SEO

From time-to-time, I like to pass along essential tools I use daily to monitor my sites for other Web designers, developers, or masters and this seems like as good a place as any. One tool that I have been using for a bit is a Google Chrome extension called Chrome SEO.

I know that there are an array of other SEO tools available and most reputable designers have their favorites, etc. they use to check how their sites are doing in the world of search engines. I like Chrome SEO because it is light-weight, runs in the browser, and gives a glimpse of some of the information I track.

While at any Web site, I can click on the SEO button and it will give me instant data on the pages indexed on all the major search engines, backlinks, traffic stats, and more.

Google Chrome users, if you get a chance, check it out, you won't be sorry...Get it here.

Phantasy Star II: An End Of Innocence

Attention: If you haven't played or completed Phantasy Star II, stop because there are spoilers that will make you question the existence of any supreme being you may worship.



As a child I was heavily into my Nintendo. That was until the Genesis came out and all bets were off. Not only did I pick up the early games for the Genesis, I splurged and got the converter for the old Sega Master System games so that I could finally play my two-player version of Double Dragon.


On top of the two-player Double Dragon I got the first Phantasy Star. I had heard through the grapevine that it was a good RPG and worthy of my attention. After only a few short minutes, I was convinced. The 3-D effects were better than any feeble attempts I had played via the NES and the storyline was interesting to boot. I wasn't new to RPG's playing through Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy on the NES, but this felt different. New. To only imagine how impressed I would have been playing it on the generation console it was released on.

When word came out that Phantasy Star II was coming out for the Genesis, I tried to contain myself. I knew that it would be as good as its predecessor, if not much better as the Genesis was capable of better graphics and sound.

When it came out, I got it home and started to watch the plot unfold in front of me. I was psyched and ready to go. My outcasted halfman/half bio-animal best friend Nei joined me on my quest, I am ready. I go through world after world, mouth ajar at each dramatic twist and turn. The game was even better than I could have anticipated. The enemies animated now, the storyline richer, and the game was taking me forever compared to the first.

Now, like all RPGs, getting each of the story's characters levels up to do certain task was annoying but who cared...this was Phantasy Star. Whoa! Tiem's father kills her. What can happen next? Days and incessant playing pass. I get to Climatrol, cool Nei's other half. Yeah, I'll fight you, c'mon Nei.

Yep, going as planned. Wait, what the hell. She couldn't kill Nei. This is bullshit. Ok, let's revert to the previous saved game and go through this again. Nope, I do not want to fight you. You are a badass - you are the victor, Rolf and Nei bow to your greatness Neifirst. Blah, blah, blah one half dies the other must die. Wait, either way Nei dies.

I played this nonstop for this. My spirit was crushed. Sega might as well have shot Old Yeller, chopped off Luke's hand, killed Bambi's mom, and followed it up by telling me I was adopted. I never looked at the world the same again.

Yes, I finished Phantasy Star II. It was a long and arduous process but I did it with no soul. The world was different to me now. The leaves were much darker than I had ever noticed, the grass just looked dead, and it seemed to get dark earlier in the day. I was in perpetual Fall. Damn you Sega, thanks for ruining my childhood.

Possible Implications of the FCC's Net Neutrality Loss

Today the F.C.C. lost their case against Comcast that would have forced Comcast to treat all of its network traffic the same whether it be streaming video, BitTorrent sites, or regular HTML content.  This whole ordeal stemmed from Comcast blocking BitTorrent traffic saying it was taking up too much of their bandwidth as, let's be honest, most BitTorrent traffic is someone downloading a movie recorded by some dude in a theater with a camcorder.

I am going to do my best to stay politically neutral on this subject.  Of course one end of the spectrum is going to applaud a victory by big business to make whatever rules they want and another end is going to scream that big business needs to be regulated.  The big question is, what are the implications of this loss?

Let's first look at a doom and gloom scenario (we will use Comcast in this scenario seeing as they were the one's discussed in the case).  Since Comcast has the ability now to restrict what traffic consumers can view via their networks, there is very little to stop them from adjusting their pricing scheme to affect what customers can access. 

"You want to watch TV online through Hulu, no problem - it's just an additional $6.99 a month." 
"We know that you love online gaming, however, it is an additional $12.99 a month."
"Oh, you like searching using Yahoo!?  Sorry, Google has a strict contractual relationship with Comcast so we no longer allow for Yahoo! to run through our network."

While these scenarios are extreme, there is very little that can be done if they decided to go this route.  Especially when you couple that with the fact that Comcast is, in my opinion, a monopoly in most states. 

Now do I really think that they will do something that extreme?  No.  It would have too much of a backlash from consumers.  That being said, there are going to be more restrictions on consumers from Comcast, in the future, which they will claim is to keep a high level of quality to their network and what opponents will claim to be censorship.

I do see the potential issue for small business owners who may have to pay more to compete with bigger companies with deeper pockets since providers can provide priority to network resources to those who may pay more.

Perhaps the F.C.C. should keep itself out of issues such as this.  If government would like to regulate big business actions, maybe they should not protect big business from growing to the behemoth Comcast has become.  Help to break up their monopoly and bring competition giving consumers more options of which ISP they would like to use.  Doing that would create net neutrality by giving consumers a choice of provider.

Zelda on N64: Was Navi That Bad?

There is a lot of discussion among gamers about the obnoxious fairy Navi from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.  To give a little background, Navi enters what I consider to be the best of the Zelda series early on in the game and helps Link to destroy the Hyrule baddies.  While most of what she has to offer is useless, it was nice to give Link a 'side kick' to help his lonely self along his adventures.

The problem wasn't that Navi was in the game and helping Link, the problem was the annoying and rather constant calling out of Navi to the gamer.  'Hey', 'hello', listen', over and over again like the incessant whining of a thirteen-year-old girl.  I best describe her as the Jar Jar Binks of the Zelda series, a character that had the potential of being a character of merit if the writers didn't decide to conform them into an annoyance.

But, am I too hard on Navi?  In hindsight, I didn't find her as annoying when I played through the game in college right after its release.  It was new and interesting to be able to hear a game's speech back in the late 90's.  It wasn't until the second time I played through it that she slowly started to wear on my nerves.  By halfway through I really wanted to choke Navi and put an end to her, 'hey, listen' existence.

It was overkill.  It was like Castlevania II and the whole night and day thing, really ingenuitive at first but after an hour or two made you want to go sit in a running car with the garage door tightly sealed.  It wasn't until years later that I realized that I wasn't alone in the hatred of Navi.  I guess it was one of the 'oops' moments in the Zelda series, seeing as it is apparent that the designers learned the error of their ways since Navi has not reared her annoying head since.  That being said, if you live in a cave and have never played Ocarina of Time, please do us all a favor and stop reading and get your ass on eBay and grab a copy.  You just may want to turn the volume down.

And if you really like to be in pain - take a listen.

Holy Apple Love, CNN

Does CNN own stock in Apple?  I know that the iPad's release is a big tech story this week but does it really deserve EVERY Tech headline on CNN.com?

Geeky Guys Make Killer Commercial

If you watch Adult Swim's Tim & Eric's commercial for Old Spice and not think it is one of the best commercials ever, it would be like I don't even know you.  Brilliant in its insanity.