I came across a couple of cool sites today while I was making my way through a large LinkedIn network, Water Cooler Games and Persuasive Games.
Both are trying to move games beyond just simple entertainment and instead include an agenda along with the fun.
TiVo bought Strangeberry today. It's amazing because as far as I know, Strangeberry didn't actually release a product. Well, I guess technically they released the Java implementation of Rendezvous but I'm sure that's not what TiVo wanted.
So, I'm no longer working for CollabNet and I'm looking for another job. If anyone has any ideas for things open here in Southern California or if a company can handle a remote employee, let me know. I worked remotely my entire time at CollabNet (3 1/2 years) and I'm very comfortable working that way.
My resume is here. I'm very comfortable in Java and Python but I'm more than willing to learn something new, especially C#.
The folks at Blogger have launched their support for Atom and the Atom API.
If I get a few minutes this weekend, I'll probably see how much work it will be to add this to Jericho.
I have absolutely no sympathy for the White Sox.
25 days until pitchers and catchers report!!
It's not every day that medics worry about someone's breast exploding because of leeches.
I hadn't checked NetNewsWire for a few days and finally did this morning. I needed something to do while sitting in my hotel room. Unfortunately, with all of the links, I haven't found a thing to post. It just seems crazy.
Oh, there are plenty of things which I like but nothing jumps out enough to put it up here. Of course, I find it ironic that I'll post something about not finding anything to post but that's the way it goes, I guess.
All morning, I've been under attack my comment spammers. It really sucks. This post by Elise has some great ideas about how to fight it and I've also installed MT-Blacklist which hopefully will work out well.
Watched The Grifters last night. It was the first time I had seen it and I definitely enjoyed it.
After firing their coach the day after the regular season ended, the Bears have finally hired Lovie Smith as their new coach. Smith was the defensive coordinator for the Rams the past three years. I'm not entirely sure how excited I am about this move though I do think he will do a better job than Nick Saban would have.
The one good thing though is that John Stoop will no longer be calling the plays for the Bears. I don't think I can put up with another year of 3-yard passes being the norm, especially with a QB like Grossman.
I had Tivo'd Best Laid Plans a couple of nights ago and just finished watching it. It was a pretty good film with enough twists to keep the story moving.
A couple of thoughts from the Pats win against the Titans and the Panthers upset of the Rams.
Was it just me or did the CBS announce team want the Titans to win badly? It seemed like everything was about how great the Titans were and very little was being said about the Patriots even though the Patriots are the top seed for the AFC and are still undefeated at home. It was just weird.
As far as the NFC game goes, I think the Mike Martz is going to be second-guessed quite a bit for just going for the field goal to tie at the end of regulation. They had a first down on around the 30 but decided to let 25 seconds run off the clock instead of at least trying for the end zone. This is surprising since Martz has always been one of the most aggresive coaches in the league. Perhaps he was trying hard to not be second-guessed if Bulger threw another interception instead of trying for the kick.
I saw Lost in Translation tonight. It is one of the most amazing movies I have ever seen.
I Tivo'd Scotland, PA the other night and finally sat down to watch it tonight. Basically, it is Macbeth set in the 1970's in a little town in Pennsylvania. I highly recommend it.
I've been trying out the new del.icio.us service and I think it is pretty cool. Here is my page of quick links. I'm mainly using it as a way to keep track of links without having 20 tabs open in my browser.
I had this wacky idea of writing a little AppleScript which would post directly from NNW. I think that would be really cool.
I'm not entirely sure how I got here but I'm at the Duke University Press website, struggling to not order a handful of interesting books. I forget the intriguing topics which can generally be found at an University's publishing house.
Here's what I want to buy:
Danny Ayers has put together a great post, detailing how he has used the Amazon API to include Wishlist data into his FOAF file. Amazingly cool!
Mark McClusky asks if there is any doubt about who the best two teams in the country are at the end of the college football season. As much as it pains me to say, USC was very impressive in the Rose Bowl and LSU manhandled Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl.
One question which probably won't come out of this is whether or not Oklahom was overrated throughout the year. They looked so amazing at times but was it just a mirage against inferior opponents? Who did they actually play this year that would have prepared them for K-State and LSU? Any team that wins convincingly can become the darling of the media and the hype grows and grows.
My friend Kendall pointed out today on IRC how his post dealing with the possible racism in Tolkein's works had regained popularity via Google. The post was done in 2002 after the second of the trilogy came out.
I found the same thing here in my post from the summer regarding The Da Vinci Code. It continues to get comments, mainly because of Google searches.
I went and saw Paycheck today. It wasn't awful though it wasn't the best movie I've seen either. I do have some misgivings about John Woo directing a film set in the future even though it wasn't that far into the future.
An additional book jumped into my reading queue yesterday. I was cleaning off my desk and found Politicians, Partisans and Parasites by Tucker Carlson. My buddy had sent it to me a little bit ago but unfortunately I had covered it up with various and sundry items. As an aside to myself, putting things on the desk that you want to find later is not seemingly the smartest idea.
But anyways, I decided to read it yesterday. I finished last night. It was a quick read but it was interesting. If you don't know who Carlson is, he's currently one of the hosts of Crossfire on CNN. He also hosted a show called the Spin Room on CNN with Bill Press but that was cancelled after only a few months. I remember watching it a few times and found it to be a political show which didn't take itself too seriously which on CNN was definitely not the norm. Before television, Tucker wrote for the Weekly Standard and the now defunct Talk.
The book is basically just an overview of the people he has dealt over the last few years in television, both as a host and a pundit. Little bits of Carlson's personal politics makes its way into the book but mainly just the politics of the camera is discussed. I wish the book would have compared and contrasted more the differences between print and television. There are little comparisons but more would have been nice.
Overall though, I think the book is great for someone who wants to get some inner scoop on various political celebrities as well as anyone looking for a beginners look at the world of televised political discussion.