AOL announced a plan to add free telephony to its AIM product. I was happy when I read the news, but as I understand, the telephone number is basically only for incoming calls. If you want to make outgoing calls, it is going to be $14.95 per month!
I don’t understand the reasoning. Why a phone number for its audience? Don’t they have a cell phone already? Why would I choose a telephone number when I have AIM? So that someone can call me on my computer? Why would someone do that when they can call me on my cell phone already??
Either someone explain me what is going on, or I will pronounce AOL has lost it.
Recently there were two instances where a commenter posted a comment on one of my posts (two different posts, of course) and started going off on a rant, asking me several questions. The first question I totally ignored as a rant, but the second one was making a serious allegation - like I am harassing them and that my blog somehow has a link to theirs and that they cannot delete it or something.
I did not understand the question really, and I wanted some clarifications (what do you mean ‘link’, how can you not delete your blog, etc.), so I hit ‘Reply’ on my email to reply to the person, but it was coming from anonymous-comment@blogger.com.
Now, I know that I have anonymous comments on, and readers of this blog would know that I do not respond to anonymous comments. But if you want to ask questions and expect a response, why would you make a comment anonymously? Make sure you put your email address or blog address or any such contact information, so I can respond to you!
Also, in their comment, they referred to some posts on THEIR blog. How am I supposed to know what their blog is??? They assume perhaps, that I know who they are and where they are coming from (in terms of blog) … but I really don’t!
This is not the weirdo who had nothing else to do. This person is asking pointed questions, so I know they are trying to get to something, but I am clueless how to respond :-(
Or is this just a bad joke being played on me??? I don’t have time for those …
Another thing to note about the draft is that Vince Young, USC’s opposing QB from the National Championship ended up at Tennessee, just like the last year with Jason White. Of course, White was picked undrafted and he gave up because of his bad knee, but Vince Young was pick #3, and Tennessee’s first pick, so there is a big difference.
But the coincidence is there to be noted.
And guess who is in the backfield with Young? Lendale White, the highest TD scorer in USC history :-) What an irony it is.
What an irony for New Orleans, especially fans of LSU. The team they detest for quite some time now, has sent their hero to their NFL team, to save the team, to bring them back from the doldrums they hit after the tragedy. How will they resist saying USC, National Champions, etc. when they mention their #1 pick?
I am so tired of this unending coverage of the NFL draft. Lets just get it done and over with!
There. It is off my chest.
Now, coming to a part of the endless, meaningless coverage … happened to watch Cold Pizza this AM and noticed Skip Bayless picking Vince Young as #1 for Texans. He actually went on to say later that Matt Leinart will not be in the top 10. Also, he said in response to a question ‘Where do you see Young, Cutler and Leinart in 10 years’ that Leinart will be busy taking up Ashton Kutcher type of roles!
Skip Bayless is a loone. I gave up on him when he wrote in the Mercury News and I think he just likes to create some ripples and splashes by taking weird stances on pretty much any topic. I remember early on in the season (or maybe it was the last season) he said Matt Leinart was a stud and suddenly, after one loss he thinks Leinart is just a chocolate hero. I think Bayless is jealous with all the coverage Leinart is getting, what with his ESPN Sportscenter modules and his Draft diary on ESPN.com.
I must admit I am having keyboard fatigue of late. I end up not taking my fingers all the way to the key I want to type and am inadvertantly pressing something else. As a result, I have, from a trillian window, opened up an email in Outlook, or minimized all windows from Word, or modified the heading of a document trying to send an email!
I was so frustrated at my trackpad because I thought it was the trackpad that was causing this nonsensical stuff, but as I tried to study the pattern of such things, I realized it was my lazy fingers! :-)
I use IM a lot. Mostly for work, but also to catch up with friends and family. But the thing is that I have not gotten used to the IM language - things like “b4”, “cu”, “l8r”, etc. I can probably understand most of it, but I NEVER end up using those.
Perhaps because I use IM a lot at work and I would like to stay away from the informal language, but whatever it is, I am using IM as a faster way to email :-)
And yea, it does make me feel old when I talk to some of the younger people on my list.
And the other thing that I am not up to speed with is the usage of various smileys, icons and most importantly, changing names and away messages. I have a photo in my Trillian which makes it the same on all mediums, but I have set it once and changed it once in the last 5 years! I have seen people change their name multiple times a day and people changing their images almost every day!! So much time and so much drive :-)
UPDATE: This video has since been removed from Youtube because of copyright infringement. iTunes it is :-)
Thanks to Trojanwire, I found this video from Youtube. Enjoy it while it is still allowed to be on Youtube. After that you may have to shell out $1.99 for the itunes version :-)
Conan O’Brien is just too funny. Reggie hardly talked, but Conan is hilarious here.
Well, Vince Young will not be the first pick. He may still play for Houston if he is available and they pick him in the second round :-)
According to the Houston Texans' GM, they are talking to Reggie Bush and Mario Williams for the first pick and they have eliminated other possibilities like trading down or picking a QB.
Sorry, Vince. Maybe playing under McNair may actually be a good blessing in disguise.
What a race by Michael Schumacher! He fended off Alonso for what 30-35 laps and did a fabulous job at it, showing Alonso who’s the boss at Imola. Also, as fate would have it, it was a complete reversal of last year’s race where Schumy kept looking for a window to pass Alonso and could not, for pretty much 20-25 laps.
I loved the race, but more interestingly, the wife was also into it. That means, the race was truly exciting :-) Of course, the formula 1 tracks are less and less pass-friendly, so passing was going to be extremely tough, but still, the fact that Alonso was trying to dip to the inside every now and then, kept the excitement to a very high level.
And of course, the pit stops. Ferrari did an amazing job with their pit stop of Schumy and that was basically the race because if after the second stop Alonso would have come up ahead of Schumy, there was no way Alonso would have given up the P1.
Anyway, all’s well that ends well. Of course, with P2, Alonso still made a lot of points buffer between him and Kimi and now, of course, him and Schumy.
As for Kimi, it was a pathetic qualifying for him, and the start, which was critical was not as good as he would have wanted, making him suffer in the middle of the pack for much of the race.
Watched American Dreamz last night. I was expecting something totally different from what I saw. I thought it was going to be out someone who wins a spot in the competition and how her life changes and stuff like that. But what I saw was an amazingly funny and sarcastic way of looking at the current state of affairs - from the egotistic guy who runs the show, the show’s popularity obviously fueling his ego, the girl who would do anything to get the fame, the goofball President (who speaks quite like the current President - no coincidence wink wink), the bald Vice President who wants to create fear of terrorism no matter what (no coincidence again, wink wink), the President’s wife with a sharp Southern accent (Laura, anyone?) and the rich Middle Eastern family in Orange County hosting a terrorist who actually wants to enjoy American life.
I laughed very hard in the movie. You should go watch it too.
It is going to be a very interesting start tomorrow at Imola. Schumy has the pole, but there are two Hondas behind him. I wonder if he can fend off his ex-teammate Rubens and underperformer Button. I hope he can, because I am rooting for him.
More importantly, I hope the McLaren of Kimi can move up in the order … and sadly nowadays that can only happen with pit strategy, which translates to fuel loads.
Can’t wait to see it tomorrow … unfortunately, it is not going to be live for US audiences, since CBS is carrying it at 10am Pacific, tape delayed. Oh well.
Contrary to some beliefs, Earth Day is not about hippies coming together and swearing at the administration. It is about making everyone aware of how we are abusing the planet and we may somehow survive, but the future generations will not, if we continue the abuse. If the conservatives are so strict about abortion, they should be worried about the environment also, since it is going to destroy the same generation they are trying to save presently.
The weather patterns are changing, which I hope no one can deny - why else would the San Francisco Bay Area be called Seattle by the Bay or San Seattle, etc.? Why else would we have bigger and worse hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico? Why else would there be absolutely unseasonal and unexpected rains in India in March? Why would it be so much colder every year in Northern California in winter (almost no spring) and so much warmer in the summer (almost no fall)?
And please do not show me the 12 “scientists” who claim there is no such thing as global warming. There’s 10 other knowledgeable scientists for each of those 12 who will tell you why the earth is getting warmer every year and how that impacts the changing weather patterns.
And as for tips on what we should be doing to save the planet, I saw an excellent post (read the tips towards the end) at Sepia Mutiny.
I recently heard a good point made in this never-ending comparison of Kobe with Jordan - if Jordan came after Kobe, would Jordan be compared to Kobe as Kobe is being compared to Jordan? Or would Jordan be automatically made the better of the two because of his supposed all-round skills?
I know you cannot compare two players from different eras, but still, if you have to compare, would Jordan be compared to Kobe?
And a second angle to this whole thing is that Kobe has always been hated by general public. They just don’t get him and he does not do anything to improve that image/reputation. Just like Barry Bonds, Kobe likes to stay aloof and mind his own business. But because of the stories that he drove Phil Jackson, Shaq and chances of another championship out of LA and of course because of his Colorado experience, his reputation is quite low today.
But Jordan’s reputation was not spotless either - there were rumors that he had some issues in his life which made him leave basketball and start playing baseball, there were some betting issues, etc. But that did not dent his reputation much, did it? Why give him some special treatment and kick Kobe to the curb?
New Orleans Public Library is asking for any and all hardcover and paperback books to restock the shelves after Katrina. The library staff will assess which titles will be designated for the shelves. The rest will be distributed to destitute families or sold for library fundraising. The books can be sent to:
Rica A Trigs, Public Relations New Orleans Public Library 219 Loyola Avenue New Orleans, LA70112-2007
If you tell the post office that the books are for the library in New Orleans, they will give you the library rate that is less than book rate. Good way to clean out those books you won’t read again and write the donation off your taxes.
Please share this information with your friends and family …
With Lakers beating Phoenix (Kobe for MVP!) today, they made it to the playoffs and I think Sacramento also made it to the playoffs.
That means the pathetic Pacific Division is going to send 4 teams to the playoffs out of 5, in a very competitive Western Conference. Before the season started, this division was supposed to be a dud, with the Clippers and Warriors being the perennial losers, the Lakers massively rebuilding, and the Kings not playing to their real potential of late. But look what happened … !
Of course, I am not sure which teams besides Phoenix will make it to the second round, but to even make it to the playoffs is a big deal.
I read this morning about the death of Rajkumar, but I did not know about the violence in Bangalorefollowing his death. Someone at work asked me what was going on and I did not know what he was talking about.
But these acts of violence after death of a celebrity is utter nonsense. I don’t think I can relate to the passion that the locals have for the actors, but I don’t think burning up buses and stuff should be in any way considered ‘ok’.
Looks like the city was shut down pretty much. Terrible.
First of all I am not sure what Queen were thinking selling out to American Idol. I guess on their current tour, they need any publicity they can get. I understand that, but I am sad to see them bear such trash (so far) that the Idol hopefuls have dished out.
I just saw Kellie Pickler singing Bohemian Rhapsody and I almost threw up. It was pathetic. What’s with chicks singing that song? If you remember, in Rockstar:INXS last year, Suzie McNeil lit it up with her rendition of the song.
Kellie was nowhere close to Suzie’s version, and I was surprised that the judges liked it. But oh well, I did not. And I am not sure if I can see any more of this show (except for that bald guy - I don’t know his name) with singer after singer killing Queen songs :-)
Toyota fired Mike Gascoyne as technical director last week. It is a shame because I think it was not because of his performance (after all, they were 4th in the constructors' championship last year, weren’t they?) but because of personal issues with the team.
From all the reports I have read, it seems it was an amicableexit. He gets paid to the end of the year and they get to start (almost) the season with a new guy. But why they had to do it after a few races into the season, I don’t understand. If they wanted the new guy (Pascal Vasselon) to settle down and take control, it should have been towards or at the end of the last season, so he can start working on finer details in the off season.
Oh well, with such a huge budget (second highest?), I guess the management needs to see better results and has lesser and lesser patience with the passing of every race.
Hope they do well, because they have decent drivers and should be doing better than what they have done this year.
After thrashing Australia on the first day for 350+ and ending up with 427, Bangaldesh has Australia at 145/6. Against most teams, this would smell of an innings defeat.
But I think Australia is not only going to avoid the follow on, they are going to make 300+. Gilly is still in and Brett Lee’s wicket is not easy to get. Australia are too tough a test match side to let this match get away.
I predict an Aussie win. Who else wants to join me?
