More Curious Than Worried

‘Pearls Before Swine’ Gets It Right

“I just spent 2 hours in front of my computer, but I didn’t get anything done! WHY?”
….

Now you know!

How to Waste Time on the Interwebs

I haven’t posted much to my blogs lately. I’d like to say it’s been because I’ve been really busy and productive and such, but that would be a lie. Truth is, I spend most of my time in front of my computer wasting it. Here’s some of my all time best ways I’ve found to waste time on the interwebs:

Credit: www.searchenginepeople.com

1. StumbleUpon, http://www.stumbleupon.com – Have you ever tried something only to have it steal an entire day from you because you keep saying “Just one more time”? This genius of a toolbar/website lets you set up your interests, then you click one simple “Stumble” button that leads you to new and different sites that you’ll probably find entertaining until you realize you’re thirsty because you’ve just spent 5 straight hours saying “Just one more time”.

Credit: dbs.homeport.org

2. Yahoo! Games, http://games.yahoo.com/free-games - Do you like simple games that require no installation and no commitments of any kind? Did you like Bejeweled? Do you want to play 50 variations of it? Since this is the only site with games that’s not blocked at work, this site has stolen tons of hours from me in the past couple of months.

Credit: userlogos.org

3. Google Reader, http://www.google.com/reader - “But wait! Google Reader is a useful tool of internet news-gathering!”, you’re tempted to say. I agree with you, but like with any social internet tool it has the ability to suck you dry of useful time. I currently subscribe to 90 blogs. Most of them update at least once a day. I need to weed it down some because it’s not nearly as useful as it should be.

Credit: www.bobkrist.com

4. The Comments Section of a News Site (ie. http://www.denverpost.com) – Imagine being in a room with a rabid Neo-Conservative, an anarchist, a bible-thumper, a tree-hugger, an Obama worshipper, a Greenpeace activist, a racist, and a Glenn Beck wannabe. Now imagine someone is asking for all their opinions on a new story at once and you can hear everyone’s opinion. Generalities are made. Rude nicknames are thrown around. Arguing ensues. Sometimes, though rarely, something intelligent is said. Good fun! (If you want to find me on there, my screen name is ScottP.)

Credit: icanhascheezburger.com

5. LOLcats http://icanhascheezburger.com – Some things are tailor made to waste your time, like the slinky. These cute, funny pictures are the furry slinkies of the interwebs. If you don’t know what a LOLcat is, I’ll explain:

LOL = Laugh Out Loud.
Cat = cat.

So the whole point of the site and the pictures is to laugh at cats. Pointless? Yep. Entertaining? Oh yeah!

Week in Review: March 17, 2009

(NOTE: I really wanted to post this on Tuesday, when it was supposed to be posted. So some of my comments are a little bit dated.)

Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday to me. Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you! Happy birthday to me. One of the great things about having a birthday on a holiday is that when people wish me a happy birthday, I can wish them a happy back.

I’m now one year away from 30. I have a house; a kid; and soon, a wife. I’m ready for my 30s. Why is everyone so afraid of those round numbers?

Things I Think I Liked

• St. Patrick’s Day Parade was fun. Nothing says Irish like waving to ….. Darth Vader?
• Went to the dentist with Ashlynn for the first time. She enjoyed it and wants to go back again. She has pretty teeth.
• Someone at either Grease Monkey or Big O Tires left a flower in Ashlynn’s car seat for her.
• Mottistone was a hit at the parade, and they had beer for me afterwards in celebration of my birthday.
• Like a 13 year old’s wet dream come true, Denver now has our own lingerie football team.
• bit.ly – It lets me know when people click the links I leave on Twitter.
• Google Analytics – It’s just fun watching when, where and how people come to this site.

Things I Think I Didn’t Like

• Plumbing problems caused water to flow into our guest bedroom downstairs. Might have to rip up carpet.
  Ashlynn’s leg still hurts pretty often.
• Going have to forsake my ‘puter upgrade for preventative car repair.
• Installed XP on my desktop so I can play games. Had to call to activate it because I’ve installed it so many times.
• In the past 3 weeks, I haven’t watched or listened to any of the podcasts I like.
• I haven’t been to the gym in about 2 weeks.

Things I Think I Think

• Stress is a lot harder to deal with when I’m working graveyard shift.

This Week Made Me Wonder…

• Is it ever going to snow?!
• Will I ever be confident using semicolons? I never know if I’m using them right.

Things to look forward to

• Good beer (Guinness, Harp, Fat Tire), good friends (too many to name), good movie (Boondock Saints) tonight at my house!
• Learning how to use my sprinkler system.
• Figuring out my swamp cooler.
• Sleeping at night every night next month.
• Spring starts on Friday. Maybe spring will give us some precipitation.

Waving at Darth Vader at St. Patty's Parade

Doesn't she have the prettiest teeth?

Emergency Alerts in On-Demand World

I’ve been thinking about the digital TV transition and why it’s a big deal. It’s just TV, right? It’s just entertainment! Why does the government care if the public can’t get their American Idol fix? The truth is, it doesn’t care about that. They’re concerned that the public won’t get their emergency alerts without their TVs.

The government, and especially us involved in public safety, have become dependent on people always having a TV or radio around. With so much on-demand content out there now, we can’t count on that anymore. More and more people are watching TV episodes online and listening to their iPods while driving. They’re not connected to radios or TVs constantly anymore. So how do we alert the public now?

Until it’s possible for public safety agencies to send messages (text messages, email alerts, etc) to people based on their location, it’s up to the public to seek out ways to get their information. Some ways to get this info:

• Twitter – Search for your local law enforcement/fire agencies on Twitter and you might be lucky enough to live in the boundaries of one of these progressive agencies.
• Check your agency’s website. Even some of the smallest agencies have their own websites and most have many ways to stay connected (email, RSS, text messaging, online reporting, etc.). I just found out my sheriff’s office is on Facebook! (Looks like they haven’t done much with it though.)
• Check your local news websites. They will probably have breaking news email alerts/text messaging/rss feeds.
• amberalert.gov - You can view current Amber Alerts and even sign up for mobile alerts on your cell phone.
• weather.gov - The National Weather Service is using RSS feeds as a supplement to their normal emergency alert notifications. You can find them here.

 I wonder if people will ever be comfortable with the government providing real-time location-based communications. Would that be too much Big Brother looking over your shoulder? Maybe public safety agencies could use services that are already out there like Google Latitude or Brightkite.