Microsoft is really reaching with some of its latest advertising campaigns. Perhaps you heard about the vomiting woman with IMGIGP (oh my god, I’m gonna puke) syndrome commercial that they recently pulled? And yes, that was Dean Cain as the spokesman.
Well, check out the latest “ad” for Microsoft Office 2010:
I have to admit that’s pretty creative and humorous, but does it really tell us anything about Office? On the other hand, does it need to?
“Spell check this!” 😀
“Good Eats” with Alton Brown has been one of my favorite television shows since I first saw it back in 2000. I own a few AB-approved accessories (like the plunger measuring cups and a salt cellar) and I also have a signed copy of his first book “I’m Just Here for the Food.” He signed it, to me, along with “Never run with knives!” 🙂 in the front cover several years ago when a mall tour brought him here to the St. Pete area (that’s where the photo on the left was taken). We got to see him do his box fan beef jerky recipe at that show.
Now, “Good Eats” is celebrating its 10-year anniversary with a special episode being taped next month in Atlanta in front of a live audience! The show will air on Food TV on October 10. Since I’ve purchased stuff from altonbrown.com in the past I got an advance e-mail announcing the show and the related contest over the weekend. I couldn’t resist a quick day trip to Atlanta to see a real live taping of GE, so I’ve already purchased my ticket (the sale goes live to the general public tomorrow). I can’t wait for August 29th!
If you follow any tech news or podcasts you’ve most likely read or heard about China’s national firewall that the government uses to block its citizens from accessing “objectionable” material on the internet. My wife and sister are experiencing the effects first-hand during their stay in China this week.
My sister first discovered that she was unable to post to her Blogger-hosted blog after arriving in the country on Saturday. Now, with the recent riots in the western Xinjiang province, she can’t get to Twitter, Facebook, or even GMail.
She’s still able to post to her blog from another e-mail account, but it’s interesting how even in one of the most technologically advanced countries on the globe you can still feel cut off. Luckily Skype is working so we’re still able to video conference and speak to each other nightly (for now).
I read via Ars Technica (and then heard in episode #1012 of Buzz Out Loud) that yesterday AOL shut down CompuServe.
A little piece of Internet history has now been laid to rest, as CompuServe was shut down for good just before this Fourth of July weekend. After some 30 years of service, CompuServe’s new owner has finally pulled the plug, leaving us to reminisce about the days when the Internet was young and we were still using modems whose speed was measured in baud.
Back in the mid-to-late 80s, if you got tired of calling local BBSes with your 2400 baud modem, or you were a traveling businessman of some sort who needed something called electronic mail, you might have subscribed to one of the big three online services: CompuServe, Prodigy, or GEnie.
I have fond memories of CompuServe, particularly the CB Simulator, a precursor to IRC. It was basically a series of big chat rooms (called bands) where you could talk to other CompuServe subscribers from around the country.
During the summers of the late 80s I was a member of the All-Ohio State Fair Band and lived on the Ohio state fairgrounds for three weeks in August with the other band members. When we weren’t performing or rehearsing, I would roam about the fairgrounds with friends enjoying what the fair had to offer. In the ODOT Building at that time there were technology and science exhibits from COSI, the Columbus-area science museum. They had lasers, a text-to-speech computer (we had all sorts of fun typing phrases into that thing, or having it sing “Beautiful Ohio“), and other interactive exhibits (mostly computer-driven). One of them was a Commodore 64 computer that was connected to CompuServe! Once we discovered the CB Simulator, we were hooked. We would spend hours there, chatting away in air conditioned comfort, monopolizing the exhibit. Once the word got out, it was harder and harder to find a time when someone from the band or choir wasn’t using the exhibit for the CB Simulator (or a few text-based interactive games) … it turned into a sort of fierce competition to see who could get over there the fastest when free time was available.
CompuServe provided a welcome link to the broader outside world, beyond the microcosm of the fairgrounds, for those three weeks when we didn’t have access to television, didn’t have money to call home on the payphone, and didn’t want to buy a newspaper. I was saddened when one year the COSI exhibits were no longer present … I guess we probably ran up too big a bill. 🙂
Fare thee well, CompuServe.
Happy Independence Day!
Our fireworks viewing experience was a little more interactive this year: the wind direction was blowing the ash, smoke, and debris right overhead, so remnants of the shells (and sometimes still glowing embers) were dropping into the crowd around us at the Largo City Park. So in addition to oooh’ing and aaah’ing at the spectacle of the fireworks, you had to keep your eyes peeled for falling stars. My daughter had collected quite a pile of dubious “souvenirs” after the 30-minute show was over.
Still, a good time was had by all, and it was a great show as usual. I made sure to send a few photos and a short video of the fireworks to my wife and sister in China, so they could have a little bit of home while overseas.
A few months ago my daughter and I watched “Star Wars: A New Hope” together. We had been playing through Lego Star Wars on the Wii and had ridden Star Tours together over at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and she was really into the characters. Considering I was younger than her when “ANH” was released (I remember seeing it in the theater with my parents and falling asleep during the second showing), I figured she was ready for the full experience.
She loved it!
Of course, she latched onto the whole Princess Leia thing, since she loves princesses, but she really got into the other aspects of the movie as well. By the end, when the Death Star exploded, we were both cheering together … it was a really cool bonding sort of moment.
My ultimate “proud father” moment happened early last month when she was selected as a padawan in the Jedi Academy show over at Disney:
This weekend, since my wife is away, we started watching the other movies. So far we’ve gotten through “The Empire Strikes Back” (she was floored when Darth Vader proclaimed he was Luke’s father, as I remember being when I saw it in the theater), “Return of the Jedi” (ugh, she liked the Ewoks, I’ll have to work on that 😉 but she was happy Luke and Leia were twins), and started “The Phantom Menace.” She’s very interested (as we all were) in how little Anakin becomes the formidable Sith Lord from the later movies.
It’s a cool experience, watching these again with her …
When ferret Swartt Sixclaw and his arch enemy Sunflash the Mace swear a pledge of death upon each other, a young creature is cruelly banished from the safety of Redwall. As he grows, he seeks revenge on the people of Redwall and finds himself embroiled in a hostile battle with far-reaching consequences.
I’ve finished the last of the Redwall novels I will be reading, “Outcast of Redwall.” As I mentioned in my last post, the repeating formula is getting tiresome for me. My daughter will probably continue to read the rest of the novels, but I’ll just have to hear what goes on from her.
This installment of the series probably should have had a different title: Veil the ferret almost seems like a secondary character. He’s not even the titular “outcast” until about 170 pages in! The main thrust of the story revolves around the badger lord Sunflash the Mace (son of Bella from “Mossflower“) and Swartt Sixclaw the ferret warlord as they try to track each other down. The usual supporting cast of creatures is present, as is the secondary storyline that eventually ties into the main plot. The extra variable in the formula is Veil: a (archtypically evil) ferret raised by the peaceful creatures of Redwall Abbey. Will he end up being good, or evil (does his name give that surprise away?).
That’s really all I have to say about this one …
My wife and sister left yesterday for a 10-day trip to China. They’re currently about 6 hours into their 12 hour flight from Toronto to Beijing. If you’re interested in keeping up with them, you can follow my sister’s China blog (one dumpling at a time 😉 ).
Holy cow … the Cleveland Cavaliers have acquired Shaquille O’Neal from the Phoenix Suns for Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic! Could that be the final part of the equation that will resolve into an NBA championship for the Cavs next year? I hope so!
Microsoft is getting into the anti-malware market.
Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) is a replacement for Windows Live OneCare and, I think, Defender. Did I mention it’s free? Paul Thurrott has a good write-up on MSE on his SuperSite for Windows.
Since I’m already running the Windows 7 release candidate, I figured why not give this a try as well? I downloaded the free beta, uninstalled AVG Free, and installed the new software:
I’ll keep an eye on it for the next few weeks and see how it goes …