Thursday, July 20, 2006

Breaking News and Errors to Correct

First off, the link in my last entry to my Bracket for Bricktop's 4th Annual DJ Spin-Off is INCORRECT! Turns out the link is not a dynamic link meaning it does not reflect the new Url created everytime I update the Google Spreadsheet. If the url were dynamic it would auto-update the newest version of the spreasheet for the link. (Side note: I might have to write Google about this because this is a real pain in the arse!)

In the meantime I made a few scans of the spreadsheet as .jpg files for your viewing here:








I had to rescale the bracket to make it more reader friendly but y'all get the drift. Now if this were anything similar to my March Madness Pool Brackets, and we were betting on the winner of the year's Spin-Off, the bracket would automatically update a players score given the correct choices made for the advancing DJs per round. Ah, but the Spin-Off is about the music and not about making money!

Alas, I cannot wait until next March...

Oh and I almost forgot, I will be a guest judge tonight for the continuation of first round competition at the DJ Spin-Off! For those new to the competition I would highly recommend you attend because the music is really good and obviously the Bricktop vibe is second to none in the great city of Lincoln. So for all those who can make it, see you there!

SYS

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

So far so good!

But still I like to keep my fingers crossed...

Bricktop's 4th Annual DJ Spin-Off 2006 went off without a hitch, well at least without a MAJOR hitch! It turns out that I am still ironing out the wrinkles working with my newest toy, a high definition camcorder from Sony. As with all Sony equipment they rely on proprietary peripherals and accessories. This fact had slipped my mind when the Geek Squad over at Best Buy sold me the unit and included all of their name brand firewires and batteries. None of them worked with the camera at all and now I was forced to order the firewire cable from Sony which will take about a week to arrive!

Is this a major big deal? No. Because I can still record with the unit and take simultganeous still images. These images are downloadable via USB 2.0 so no problems there. Just have to wait to get the video on my PC for editing. That's the one thorn in my side for me. Because this means my video coverage of this year's DJ Spin-Off will have to wait until at least the second round. Blah! But it's better then nothing.

For those who are interested in brackets you can take a look here to see the current standings as well as take a peek at what Google Spreadsheets looks like. (Bracket was created with Google Spreadsheets. Head on over to Google Labs to learn more.)

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

More and more I believe what my late Pop used to say...

"Money truly is the root of all evil."

I could not help but notice this article in USA Today. Obviously, I'm glad this has NOTHING to do whatsoever with a terrorist attack. But I'm still shaken by the fact that this could have happened over the potential surrender of a Brownstone worth some $5 million as conditioned in a divorce settlement. Investigations have not concluded, so new information could develop.

But still, in light of the fact that neither party would have acquired the Brownstone outright (the cash value at time of sale would be split amongst the divorcees), I have to ask the following question. Would blowing up the building really be worth the risk of lives lost of people who were not even involved in the divorce???

Don't get me wrong, I would not want something (home, vehicle, etc.) to be awarded outright to my ex-wife simply because she was divorcing me. In the heat of the moment it might dawn on me to sabotage an asset lost in a settlement. I would be able to palette a lot easier splitting assets in such a way that is fair, even if it did involve their outright sale. Better still, I would most likely want my children to have certain assets for themselves to do so as they wish.

Still it makes me scratch my head. Hopefully, the investigations ongoing will show some conclusion other than the divorce and money. Even if it turns out to be an accident resulting from a gas leak, its still tragic and nerve-racking for citizens of NYC!

SYS

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

What time of the month is "this???"

Things that make you go, "WTF???"

Strong Island wants you to see this Jetpak!

Jeteye

strong_island_dave wants you to see a Jetpak titled:

Fuel Cell Technologies

This is a new venture using the Jeteye utility. Jeteye allows you to basically collect snippets here and there on the web related to a common theme or subject and creat a "jetpack" with the information bundled and ready to be distributed to other members of your contact group. I think this utility has a lot of potential due to the fact that it functions much like a clipboard, but also has the ability to keep track of where (what source) content was obtained. That's pretty cool for research! Wish this existed back when I was in Grad school working on my thesis.

Jeteye is a new way to use and share the web.

Jetpak - a collection of web links, notes, videos or images assembled by anyone about anything. Jetpaks are the ultimate container of your web activity.

Get Jeteye to drag and drop any web content into a Jetpak. It's that simple.

Jeteye Technologies, Inc. • 244 Jackson Street, Suite 200 • San Francisco, CA 94111-1826
Tel: +1 415 946 2112 • Fax: +1 415 834 9185 • www.jeteye.com
(c) 2006 - All rights reserved. Patents pending.



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Now the above entry looked totally different in the preview window! But that's alright. Once the kinks are worked out, this will kick some major ass!

SYS

Monday, July 03, 2006

Fun with more Google tools!

Is it me or does it seem that Google is one of a very few technology companies actually coming up with really cool and useful stuff for the web and your PC? Well I would definitely argue that the guys and gals at Google are on to some great things! Just got done setting up this calender through . Works pretty well and can integrate with Gmail which is pretty sweet. Lot's of features I haven't gotten to read about yet but I'm sure you get the idea of what can be done with this API.



SYS

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