More ways to get a human on the line, the MS iPod, and hollow books!

GetHuman.com - A couple of months ago I posted a link to a site that lists how to get to a real person on the line when you call a "Support" line. Here's a better list from the original author and others! No promises that the person lives in the same country as you do though!

If MS made the iPod! - The sad part is, everything in the movie is probably accurate!

Presentation via the web - Thumbstacks - Ever wanted to be able to take a presentation to someplace and not have to worry if they have PowerPoint? This may be your answer!

How to make a Hollow Storage book - I find this really interesting since I have a lot of book on shelves. Pick up some "useless" books at a Flea Market and you can hide obscure film strips in a book too.... Just be sure not to ruin a Bible. (Lost reference for those of you not in the know)

A friend of mine now lives in Hawaii and works for Surfing Photographer Jim Russi. Check out their current site and keep your eyes out for a new one coming soon.

And Finally a Games post!

Words -- How fast can you type?

Enjoy!

A big welcome to our new Contributors!

Hail and welcome to the newest members of the Places gang. Chris and Patrick are friends and co-workers of ours and it looks as if they have taken to the posting regimen with lots of vigor.

Chris (abikerbard) has his own blog over at Fat Jack's Erratic Rants and Patrick is startingup over at DBPatrick.com. Give 'em some support!

And since I didn't do this previously... Jeff is another of our posters. He as a site over at Best of 417.

And I won't even get into it with Jill (kittykatjill). She's just a lurker that never posts anything.... EVER! Think a good Catholic Guilt Trip will work?

Too many blogs to keep up with?

I've really grown to love Bloglines. On one page, I can add all my blogs. I log in, it brings them all up on the left and even brings the blogs right into the page. So now, you don't have to scroll from page to page/site to site, to keep up with all your favorite blogs. Just bring them all in here and click your imported links on the left while all your blogs are displayed on the right.

In conjunction with Bloglines, use Feedblendr to mix blogs of the same type and display them all from one link. It also let's you create custom news feeds and such. Much more actually.

Blogging is a whole lot easier and more fun!

Long, high-quality random passwords for routers, VPNs, and your Mom's cookie recipe!

Steve Gibson provides the best password generator I have ever seen. If you need a unique, custom, high quality, cryptographic-strength password string for

• Your wireless router's WPA password
• Virtual Private Network (VPN)
• Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) encryption
• Your Mom's secret recipe file

I would recommend this as the place to go. If you need one that is shorter than 63 characters, you can truncate the string to the length you need.

https://www.grc.com/password

Caution, you may want to keep a copy of the password on a USB drive so you can copy and paste instead of even thinking about typing in one of these puppies.

Steve Gibson is well known for his "Spinrite" hard drive repair software and for his podcast with Leo Laporte: "Security Now".

Mucho Macho Movie Sites

It’s Oscar time baby! So to celebrate the season, I have decided to offer you some of the wonderful movie sites out there, broken down by category. If any of you have some movie websites that I need to know of, please let me know. I have more movie thoughts on Fat Jack’s Erratic Rants.

CRITIQUE
Roger Ebert
Rotten Tomatoes
Mike Cullinan’s Blog, Entertain Me

MOVIE INFO & TRAILERS
Apple’sMovie Trailers
Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

MOVIE RENTALS
Netflix (If you haven’t used the free trial, you are insane in the membrane.)

MOVIE THEATRES & SHOWTIMES
The Moxie
Springfield 8
Campbell 16
The Palace
Springfield Movie Pages

Now that takes Moxie!

If you love movies, and I mean you really love all things celluloid, and you live in Springfield, MO then you should know and support The Moxie. It is Springfield’s only independent movie theatre. Now if you think that an independent theatre means they only play art house, documentary and foreign films then you are mistaken, although those types of movies are absolutely a staple. They will play Oscar contenders and other movies that you won’t see (or won’t see for long) at the bigger corporate conglomerate movie hog troughs.

The Moxie may only seat 75, but the experience is wonderful. The offer popcorn seasonings and drinks (soda and alcohol) served in the bottle. Best of all, there is an intermission. If you are looking for a more intimate movie watching experience and see some movies that usually pass Springfield by, then check out The Moxie.

I have seen several movies there: The History of Violence (Oscar nominee), Murderball (Oscar nominated documentary on quad rugby,) and Pulse (Japanese horror). It takes Moxie to start a movie theatre in Springfield when just a few years ago we had several close down.

Abikerbard

Do you have two or more computers on your desk and would like to use the same mouse and keyboard for all of them? This Synergy program works great for me. It even handles my secondary screen properly although it has lower resolution than my primary screen. http://sourceforge.net/projects/synergy2

A Writer's site, Congressional Pork, and a mega blog

For all the writers out there, please check out TW (Today's Woman). It was started as a site to support female writers and has evolved. Over 40% of their members are now male. If you like to write poetry, short stories, or anything else, this site might be helpful. I have become a member recently and it is a great site for writers of all types and skill levels.

Are you tired of our politicians wasting our hard earned tax payer dollars? If so, check out Porkbusters. You can learn how your representatives and senators stack up with the pork. You can also find out more about bill S.2265: The Pork Barrel Reduction Act and if your senator has declared support for it or not.

I was channel surfing and stopped on C-SPAN. They were interviewing Glenn Reynolds about his new book and his blog. His blog is Instapundit.com. It is a mega blog- meaning that huge blog with a ton of posts. He posts news items with his own impressions of what is really going on. I found it an interesting interview (most I had watched CSPAN in a long time). His site is worth checking out.

Use Ajax on your TV lisings, Maps in 3D and over 1 Billion Served!

Evoke TV - Dynamic TV listings - Yery nice implementation of AJAX.

Maps in 3D! - Map24 - Lets you view directions in a 3D environment.

The BEST Xbox360 Ad out there! -- Shootout! - If you haven't seen this, its pretty amazing. Then go over to either the inspiration or the imitation by some high school students!

One Billion Mazes! - Yes, there are One Billion Mazes (holds pinky up to mouth with hand turned out) on this site. A great reference site for teachers that have students with nothing to do.

NBCWeatherPlus launches beta site - Not a lot to see yet, but could give Weather.com a run fo rits money some day.

50 Best. Robots. Ever. - HAL, Robbie, and Furby. They are all here!

The Davinci Dialogue - Talk about the facts, myths, and mysteries. - Site is hosted by Sony in preparation for the new Movie. Grains of salt may be required.

Enjoy!

Nissan makes a Shuttle, just don't put all your officers inside!

Move over Star Trek - Here comes Nissan - Cool in a SciFi Geek Scary kind of way.

Ummm YTMND does the Cheney shoots someone thing... Nintendo style.

Blueprint - The Game - More fun as found from Jay is Games.

The Muppet Wiki - Everything Muppet, All the Time.

Political Compass - Where do you end up pointing????

Enjoy!

Top 10 Lists

Top 10 Lists: This is a blog that puts in fresh 10 ten list. Today's post (Feb 15,2006): Top Ten Reasons why Chaney shot Harry Whittington. Very well down.

The Office and Gossip and Flushing Toilets!

I'm a big fan of The Office. Here's the company's fake Website - Dunder Mifflin - If you haven't watched this, its a British import that, unlike Coupling (which I LOVE the Brits version), NBC didn't totally screw up. Great TV and comedy.

ValeyWag - Tech Gossip at its best! -- Brought to you by the same people who do LifeHacker and Gizmodo.

MailBigFile.com - Got a big file that your e-mail system won't let you send??? Try this site. Another favorite that I recommend is YouSendIt.

Songbird Proof of Concept - Open source replacement for iTunes that will, eventually, support other mp3 players through plugins. Warning!!! This is a very early ALPHA. Use at your own risk.

Aardman's trailer for their new movie Flushed Away - I love Aardman's movies and shorts. You probably know them from Chicken Run and the commercials for Chevron Gasoline. This one's done in a computer which is guess is ironic since their studios burned to the ground and their rebuilding.

Wanna buy some super insulating Silicon Dioxide mini chunks that instantly suck the moisture out of your fingers when you hold it??? Go Here!

Enjoy!

Fonts, the Sky, and Taxes... Oh, and some commercials from some games with a bowl!

Superbowl commercials from Google and AOL. -

Knock Knock - Interesting stuff you can buy.... I like the Pads! Especially the Who's to Blame, Shit List, Don't Kill the Kids, and Excuse Note!

Themed Fonts - Alias, Angel, etc. - Ever want a font that you saw on a TV show? No? Maybe you ought to have a look....

Stellarium - Open source Planetarium for your computer!

Since it is that time! Tax prep sites. TurboTax and H&R Block are two I've used before.

More Later... Enjoy!

Chewie, George, and Brokeback Parodies.

Chewbaca's Blog - Does Google offer a Wookie Translator?

Where's George? - Infamous Bill Tracking site gets a makeover.

Brokeback Mountain Parodies... Very funny and more are at YouTube
Brokeback to the Future - Larry found this the funnier one.

Broke Mac Mountain - I liked this one! LMAO!!!!

100 best First Lines from Novels - A debatable list, but interesting to see how different authors start off their books. What??? No Tolkein??? I think the list is rigged!

Enjoy!

Big 80's websites- Almost as fun as the 80's

For those of you that read my other blog, Simple Thoughts of a Complex Mind, here is some 80's links for you. (Yes Bryan, that is my shameless plug).

Kim and Jason A comic with the Calvin and Hobbs feel.

The 80's Server Great 80's Site with fun games, articles on being a child of the 80's, and other cool links.

The 80's The Decade of Excitement For those that missed the fun. Here is a site to help get you aquanted.

Crazy Fads Here is a site dedicated to the crazy fads of the 80's. I miss that Big Hair.

Valley Girl URL If you use it, it will like totally change any website from a dweeb normal site to like the most totally awesome site. I think you will love it, like for sure.

The 1980's Review Nuff Said.

Project Offset, Chuck Norris Facts and Tom Cruise kills Oprah

A reason to buy a new gaming computer. The first epic fantasy "first person shooter" at cinematic quality. This has got to the most unbelievable game I have ever seen. Coming in August... Project Offset

Scroll down the page and click on GameTrailers(streaming version) and check out some of the unbelievable actual videos. You have to check out the footage! Seeing is believing!

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Chuck Norris Facts. The funniest site I've visited in a long time. You have to read at least 10 facts or so to truly start appreciating them. I laughed so hard I cried.

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Tom Cruise kills Oprah. Good for a quick laugh.. much like Tom Cruise himself.