The US gov has just made it mandatory for credit agencies to give you a free credit report every year. (It’s about time!) You can get all the info at www.annualcreditreport.com.
It looks like the site is in Java. Lets see how it holds up tomorrow 
Well, I just put the finishing touches on a version of blogbot for Microsoft Outlook. Very cool stuff Go check it out.
Well, guess what. I logged in and found another 200-300 comments awaiting moderation on my blog. These were all blog spam to some online poker site. So, I now have to spend some time doing some SQL queries to eliminate all of the cruft from my site. I will also have to turn off comments for good.
This sucks since I really wanted to keep them. There were some good comments posted just last week. I tried just blocking that IP or forcing moderation. No avail. These jerks just kept pumping my site with crap.
So, until I obfuscate comment posts or put a ‘what does this image say’ pic there, no comments. Sorry.
As I just check my email inbox today, I have the joy of discovering over 100 spam emails to me and about 60 spam comment posts to my blog. No fun 
Two things.
NVidia has finally come out of their slump. They are producing the best video cards on the market right now, and they are actually shipping. I actually heard from a co-worker who just bought a 6800 AGP card and tried Half Life2. He said the graphics was just phenomenal, like beyond what he has seen on other systems.
There are so many great games out right now. It is going to be hard to resist. First, there is Halo 2. Then there is Doom III. Then there is Counter Strike Source. Then there is Half Life2. Then there are some other new titles for PS/2 and Xbox. Ok. Now stop and re-read that list. Those are some INCREDIBLE titles. It’s going to be tough, but I’m going to wait till next year. There is too much to get done.
Cool video captured of the Tokyo Macromedia show and posted on Kevin Lynch’s blog (he’s the CTO of Macromedia)
Well, I’ve been reading about all the flury of podcasting on the net, and I got the bug to figure out how to get some of my favorite radio shows onto my phone. See, I have a phone that can store about 32 megs of data in a flash card and it can play MP3’s with RealPlayer. This is good enough for a simple radio show, so I don’t need to carry around an IPod. Here is how it went…
First, I located the shows I wanted to hear online. Just about all the NPR radio shows are in RealAudio format. If you are listening live, you can get them in Windows Media or Real Audio, but all the archives are RealAudio. Now, the other interesting bit is that these shows are all in a streamed form of RealAudio. You cannot just downlod the .RAM file and then convert it. Wow. These free radio shows that I pay for with my tax dollars, cannot be downloaded!
Ok. That was a show stopper, until….
I was talking to the local audio guru here and he mentioned a piece of software called Total Recorder. This software is great. Essentially, the software inserts itself into the kernel and captures all of the audio before it gets played out your sound card. It even has other nifty features like scheduling and being smart about recording only when there is audio available. The software was $12, it worked when I tried it, so I bought it.
So now, I turn on Total Recorder, play the show I want, and then then save the MP3 when I notice that the show is done. Usually, a show ends up being about 9 - 10 megs. I then send the file to my phone via Bluetooth, and I’m done.
Let me tell you. Even thought this is a bit more work than I want, I really enjoy hearing what I want when I’m driving home. If the past is any indication. This kind of experience will only get easier and better.
Saw the movie last Friday at the office.
I’ll just say this: One of the best movies I’ve seen in my life.
Highly recommended.
