Wish I could get an iPhone 2.0

I wish I could get an iPhone 2.0 but like many places throughout the country, AT&T is not available. I live in North Dakota and the iPhone is unavailable. Like thousands of others, for some reason I watched the 24 hour live coverage on stickam.com via twitlive.tv and saw Leo Laporte and all of his friends including the great Woz (Steve Wozniak) one of the co-founders of the iPhone. 

I only watched a few hours of the coverage but it was really interesting, especially considering that it was all happening live and to find out about the news of how the sales were probably higher than expected or at least that’s what my impression was especially since their were problems for people activating their phones. It was said that you had to do it at the store but even I knew that was hogwash, since you can buy a phone on ebay and activate it home just by calling the carrier. It’s not like the cell phone stores have magical connections where cell phones are born or something. Come on!

Anyway it was also interesting to watch the live coverage and watch instantly as anyone who plugged their website on Leo’s show had their website crashed by everyone at once going to check it out. I was smart and started taking notes in Stickies (on the computer) and using del.icio.us to bookmark the pages (although the later didn’t work as well). 

I also made a personal goal to get 500 people following me on twitter.com and and I will be following at least that many people, I am now just over 150 or so and have a long way to go, so if you want, you can add me by going to twitter.com/djstangl

That’s all for now.

Kim Komando is a moron

The radio host Kim Komando is a moron. If you need proof, just listen to her show. If you are into technology at all you will know she is a totally worthless excuse for a radio host. You should instead listen to someone who knows something about technology, like Leo Laporte or Chris Pirillo or anyone else who has more brains than Kim. 

Okay, I am not being sexist I’m just trying to let people know that this woman is a moron.

Here is some more proof. Go to this blog and read more views of people who think she’s incompetent. People may say right away in defense of her that she’s the greatest thing ever. Do I care, no. I can have my own opinion and you can say that I am a moron, and that’s fine but I’m just expressing my opinion. I have a right to do that, it’s called the First Amendment.

Fluid, the best new application for Mac OS?

I heard about an application called Fluid on a the MacBreak Weekly podcast. I think I actually heard of it before this but I will give Andy Ihnatko (I hope that’s how you spell his name) credit. 

At first I thought big deal an application that turns websites or urls into an application. But then I downloaded and tried it. So far my only gripe is that the icons it uses when creating the application are really bitmapped but who cares I can change the icons. 

I actually created a WordPress application, so when I want to go straight to wordpress I can just launch the application and start blogging after I log in to the site.

There are a bunch of other things that this app can do, I literally just downloaded it a few minutes ago so I will have to play with it first to find out what else it can do, but so far I am impressed.

The best part is that this is freeware.

Posting pictures on my blog

 

This is just a test to see how you post photos on your blog. I had a friend e-mail me saying she was having trouble posting photo to WordPress, so I am going to attempt it myself and see what happens. I have done this many times before, but WordPress is constantly being udpated.

Eureka will return July 29th and new X-files movie too

My favorite Sci-Fi television series will return on Tuesday, July 29th. That show is of course, Eureka, starring the guy who played Jack on Days of Our Lives many years ago (Collin Ferguson) and a bunch of other people including Matt Frewer as Jim Taggert (otherwise known as Max Headroom).

Eureka is in it’s third season. I am surprised it made it this far, usually good stuff gets canceled. I think this is actually a show that people who aren’t into Sci Fi like, and that’s why it is doing so well.  It’s not your typical nerdy show with aliens etc.

Which reminds me, my other favorite Sci Fi show, which was made into a movie once will again be gracing the big screen. I am of course talking about the X-Files. How freaking awesome huh? Actually, my wife is a bigger fan than I am. I can say that since she has a collection of Scully and Mulder dolls.

The new X-files movie will debut on the same day, so I will have to record Eureka and get a babysitter to go to the X-files movie.

First online pizza

Today my wife and I ordered pizza. Instead of grilling out for Father’s Day we decided pizza would be better. So, we went online to order the pizza. Being a tech guy, you think I would have done this years ago, but no I guess for pizza I was a traditionalist.

The process was pretty painless, accept for the paying part, yes it was easy but I didn’t care paying $17 for pizza. Although, for three pizza’s that is probably cheap.

I ordered from Domino’s since they are the closest pizza chain near my house. I would probably prefer some other chain, but that’s what I have to choose from for pizza. 

Domino’s site is kind of cool, you pick your location, then look at coupons and then select your order, including whether you want sauce or cheese (I didn’t think there was an option). 

It first shows a status bar or “pizza tracker” and shows the steps of getting the order, preparing it, then baking it, boxing it and then ready to pick up. 

I think I will probably be ordering more pizza online. 

 

Found a “new”place that has good food for less

My wife and I found a “new” place that’s similar to many of the places featured on Diners and Dives on the Food Network. I say “new” because it’s new to us, we’ve never been to this restaurant for meal. It’s just a small diner inside an old shopping mall, but the food is good and prices are reasonable. It’s old fashioned and they don’t accept any kind of credit or debit cards but that’s okay, they still take checks. The place is Del’s at the Grand Citie’s Mall in Grand Forks. The food is cheap, you can eat a full meal for less than a gallon of gas. The breakfast special which is eggs (anyway you like them) hashbrowns and a slice of toast plus coffee for $2.80. Just think a gallon of gas is now $4 or more. Of course there are many things that cost a lot less than this but a full meal for under $3 is amazing considering a cup of coffee at Starbucks costs more than a gallon of gas.

Dew Mockracy

Yes that is a pun and we will see if this embeded code works to help Pepsi with their marketing campaign.

Yup it does..

All I will say is that I have tried all three new Mountain Dew flavors and I like Voltage the best, but I think I need to test them all again.

I did notice that Voltage was the most purchased flavor at the store so I think that will probably be the winner.

Gas prices are high, but what can you do?

Today gas prices in Grand Forks, North Dakota are just shy of $4. So what is a person to do? I am not sure. I live about 15 miles from the city where I work. So obviously it’s not a distance that I can bike to work on a regular basis, especially since I live off of a major highway. Also, I have child so it wouldn’t be safe or really even feasible to do so. That leaves me with paying the $4 per gallon or higher. What a person can do is slow down and increase your gas mileage. I have heard about hypermiling and I am sure it true but how much of difference is what I wonder

I wonder if two or even five years from now how much the price of gas will be. I assume it will be higher, either that or we will be switching to a different fuel source. I guess in Europe prices are already well over $4 per gallon, so we really don’t have it that bad.

The big question is why is the gas price so darn high? The answer, the stock market. The economy is in a slump, recession whatever you want to call it so that leads to what we have now. Will things get better, sure they can’t get any worse can they? (Sarcasm).

That leads us to the upcoming election. I haven’t been paying that close lately but I am rooting for Barack Obama. As Leo Laporte said, when you watch a movie and they show a black president you are usually watching a fictional movie about the future, since having a president other than a white guy is fiction (at least according to Hollywood). So now I think we might be moving towards the future and it won’t be fiction anymore, let’s hope.

What’s next for Wii?

I read an interesting article today in USA Today about Nintendo’s newest game, Wii Fit which will maybe allow many gamers to help them get in shape mentally and physically or at least feel better about themselves. This game is also not even geared toward the typically geeky gamer who spends hours a day playing games. It is geared towards moms and wives and others who typically don’t play games. Nintendo’s creator, Shigeru Miyamoto or father of Nintendo is the person behind Wii Fit and he plans to create Wii Music as well.

I own a Wii and I love it. It was one of the best Christmas presents I have received within the last few years, I felt like a kid again, when I got my Castle GraySkull action set when I was 10 or so.

What’s next you ask? I think maybe Wii Life or maybe for adults Wii Sex. Nah, that would stupid.

How about Wii Eat? Where you learn about how to create culinary masterpieces. I tried Cooking Mama but I can’t stand it. I can never understand what the heck it’s saying.

So if you have any other Wii ideas let me know.