So Sewell is releasing a USB to DVI adapter in the near future (available for preorder only now). This means you can take a video card with you to add an additional display to a laptop or desktop easily. It’s actually quite ingenious. For desktops, you don’t have to rummage around in your case to install new hardware (luvs me that plug and play!). Plus, it’s portable enough that if you wanted to switch a display from notebook to desktop or if you want to use the same device with multiple computers (not simultaneously obviously), you can do it easily.

The adapter boasts 128 MB of RAM which is enough to drive a display up to 1400×1050. And, I got to test one. It looks really good. There just aren’t many comparable products, either, if you want an additional display without doing a full product install. Pics below.

So Microsoft recently started Club Live, an online game area with mostly word games. The games are pretty fun, but nothing extraordinary (although I do like Flexicon, their crossword game). Normally, this wouldn’t be much to speak of, but the catch is that all of these games have a half screen with an embedded window that goes to MSN’s pathetic online search function. Now, on the crossword puzzle, it simply keeps it there for a resource and auto-searches the last word you filled in. Not anything extraordinary, there.

However, in the anagram game, Chicktionary, you attempt to make as many words as you can out of a 7-letter combination. Every time you search, whether it’s a word or not, it does an MSN search for whatever you typed. This means they’re getting hundreds of searches for each time an individual plays that game. This is pretty obviously meant to jack up their number of monthly searches. Pretty sad.

What I don’t understand is, what’s in it for them? Is their Alexa ranking going up all that big a deal? That’s about all I can see in it from an industry-advantage standpoint. If they’re trying to show some superiority over Google in their algorithm, they’re doing it all wrong. I’ve been so frustrated by their responses that I’ve had to switch windows to get to a Google search open for good help on the anagram game.

Bottom line: Microsoft should be putting their resources into making an actual usable algorithm if they want to win searchers back from Google, not “tricking” them into using MSN through word games.

Although I have honestly never seen a GoDaddy commercial (though from what I hear, I would not like them), they are my top pick for domain name registration. That doesn’t mean I necessarily love their service, it’s just good enough and what I know. I do want to throw out some caveats, though, for people who may be considering using GoDaddy to register a domain (or other services). Since I’m an optimist, I’ll tell you what I like about them first:

The Good

• Fast Propagation - This means that your site becomes visible relatively quickly (I’ve seen some go “live” within an hour). Some services, like Yahoo! domain registration, can take much, much longer.
• Easy To Use Interface (up to checkout) - GoDaddy’s URL availability search is very easy to use and makes good recommendations for alternate domains you may be interested in if your first pick isn’t available.
• Competitive Pricing - You may find people that will register your domain for cheaper, but not by much.

The Bad

• Ugly, Ugly, Ugly Checkout Process - Not only is it hard to follow, the checkout process is riddled with up sells (not only are these irritating (I hate up sells), but they make the process very difficult) they try to snag you with. Additionally, adding a single feature, like private registration, is a difficult process as they try to sell you on big packages before giving you the option to just add private registration.
• Ugly, Ugly, Ugly new GoDaddy Girl - If your whole marketing strategy is degrading women, you might as well get a more attractive one to act as your face.

So, I don’t wholeheartedly support GoDaddy, but they’re definitely worth considering when registering your first domain. Oh, and if your doing it as a blogger, you should consider hosting it with IncuBlogger (you get free hosting on a VPS (it’s quick) and training on how to make a monetizing blog).

I long for the day somewhere down the road where a cell phone camera becomes good enough to take pictures you can at least publish with respect to the web. Even some of the nicer ones now boast a 2.0 Megapixel resolution. While this enables you to take larger photographs, it certainly doesn’t necessarily mean you can take better pictures. I’ve had the same argument against people who go out and spend $300 on a digital camera that has 10+ MP resolutions but a cheap Chinese lens. My 2.3 MP Konica Minolta will smoke it for picture quality, guaranteed.

I digress. The main point here is that I would like to see someone come out with a camera that has an actual decent lens and a 2.0 MP receptor. If anyone knows of one, I’d be glad to find out more about it. So far, here are the best pictures (perhaps) that I have ever taken with my 1.0 or 1.2 MP camera phones. Granted, they’re not horrible, but I would never take pictures of my little girl to send to her grandparents with my phone either. . . yet

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With my Samsung Blackjack inside Chadder’s

Taken with my Treo 650 at a BYU Football Game

So recently, my wife and I stopped by a Maverik for a quick Icee (never a bad idea). The total came to $.84 after tax, but me, being a dufus, didn’t have any cash on me. Feeling bad about making a company pay credit card processing fees on a < $1 order, I used my debit card. Big mistake.

My wife points out a couple days later that we were, in fact, charged $20.84, as if we got $20 cash back. This means the lanky guy ripped us off $20. Anyway, I called Maverik corporate to find out who the store owner was and they gave me his Cell #. He was actually really good about getting back to me promptly. He was very apologetic and said we’d get our $20 back. I said that the money wasn’t as big a deal (not that I mind getting it back) as making sure he got fired so he didn’t do it any more. The nice guy (Ross, I think) said, “Oh no, I’ll check out the security tapes and we’ll get him arrested.”

“Wow,” I thought. That’s pretty tight. Ross then goes on to explain:

“Yeah, this happens about once a week at Maverik.”

The lesson - don’t swipe your Debit card as a debit card at a Maverik.

I’ve already made mention of my joining of facebook and some components of the social web like online dating through eHarmony and others and the idea sort of piqued my interest in what type of people participate in such. Obviously, with things like eHarmony, you have to pay to subscribe and I’m not that dedicated to find out how it works.

However, I was amused at Yahoo’s personals pages. They’re one of the top-ranking online dating sites and you can actually sign up without a fee (though you do have to post your personal profile first, which I wasn’t willing to do - too many pages). But their ranking system for evaluating your compatibility (at least initially) is your ZIP CODE. Seriously, if you just type in your gender, the gender you’re looking for and your zip code, they have a list of individuals with their compatibility ranking. The closer they are to your zip code, the more compatible. Naturally. Check it yourself if you don’t believe me. I guess it’s good that true love is based on geographic proximity.

Now, granted, you can be more specific later on down the road, choosing everything in your perfect pal from eye color to religious preference. But if you just don’t have time for that, someone in your same ZIP is obviously your best choice.

Disclaimer - I just have to remind readers (especially my wife) that I’m actually very happily married and not looking for anything better. My interest in online dating is purely scientific.

So there’s a site online where you can generate your own church signs. I just found out about it today through a friend who received an email with a bogus “church sign” message they thought was amusing. Anyone who knows me well is aware of my loathing of all things forwarded. If you don’t actually want to tell me anything, simply don’t email. Thanks.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand, the church sign image maker is actually pretty funny. Here’s one I got from BuckBuck (slightly modified), admonishing me to work rather than read fake church signs:

Or, in classic Simpson’s style:

Good times.

So as sort of a perk for working with Vizad lately, I got to go with them up to Culinary Crafts in Orem. They typically just do corporate or wedding catering, so you can’t just swing by for lunch as a general rule. I tell you what. I was blown away. Amazing baked asparagus, a sensational salad, Thai wraps, fresh sourdough bread, and a slightly spicy pasta with a creamy marinara topped with fresh pine nuts made for the best lunch I’ve had in… well, for lunches, maybe best ever.

It made me seriously consider some potential life changes. Maybe I’m working at the wrong place. I mean, Sewell barbeques are fun, but just aren’t on the same page with what Culinary can do. It also made me wonder how odd it would be to do a renewal of vows just three years after your wedding just for catering purposes. Maybe that’s extreme, but I really do have to give mad props to Culinary Crafts and officially recommend them for any Utah catering needs you may have.

So I noticed this new series of commercials for Alltel. They make the ‘Alltel guy’ a nice, respectable gentleman while the Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile, Cingular, etc. guys are all overweight and or uber-nerdy. What gave marketing America the right to start going all political-style mud slinging with their TV ads?

Rather than simple self promotion, it seems like it’s becoming more commonplace to just come out and say not only “we’re better” but “they’re inferior.” Granted, it’s kind of implied in saying you’re better than someone or something by showing you’re own superiority, but for that same reason it seems like you simply don’t need to see it. It feels really demeaning to me as a viewer and almost like the marketing guys at Alltel just ran out of ideas. What do you do when you run out of ideas? Copy Mac’s marketing approach.

Post Script - The TV’s on right now and I just saw a commercial for Mazda - same deal. C’mon people.

OK, I don’t normally support simple posting of YouTube videos as a blog post, but I thought this was funny stuff. These guys over at the BBC have mastered the art of spoofing that style of videos that you had to watch through public education. I simply can’t describe how on point it was. It also appealed to my deep-rooted love of British humor (what can I say? I grew up on Monty Python and was under the impression that anything said with a British accent was funny - don’t deny it, you thought it too…). Anyway, enjoy learning about water, chemical symbol H-Twenty.