Congrats

Sups sups hows it going (just nod your head)

Congrats to Joe and Angie for getting engaged!
Congrats to notpatelman on his birthday!
Congrats to this blog for surviving one whole week!

Foreheads cost More than Cleavage
Update on the Shaune Bagwell (ex of Jeff Bagwell) story posted on the 5th -
The winning bid was for $15k by golden palace casino.

Does your vehicle have an 'event data recorder' on board?
"Your car is most likely recording things about your driving and that information can be used against you if you have a traffic accident.
Most people don't know their car has a black box. They are similar to ones in
airplanes, although they don't record voices, but they do record plenty of other things that happen before a crash.Even though it's silver, it's called a black box or airbag sensor or event data recorder. Its main job is safety, it operates the airbags, but it also records information and because of that, a Glenpool teenager could be charged with negligent homicide. It'll be the first time anyone's been charged in Tulsa County based on a black box, but you can bet, it won't be the last."
Check if your car has this "black" box (its mostly on newer Ford and GM cars) at this link.
First we are forced to wear seat belts and now this. The least they could do is tell us if this is on board and can be used against you in court when they're selling the car.

Low Riding Pants Will Get You Fined in Virginia
FINE fashion
"The state's House of Delegates passed a bill Tuesday authorizing a $50 fine for anyone who displays his or her underpants in a "lewd or indecent manner." "
Read the rest here.

Freebie - Smarties candy(gotta register though)
Freebie - If you own a musical instrument, Fat Cat Instrument Oil
Freebie - Ponds Age Defying Hydrating Cleanser (Shaune Bagwell could use this)
Freebie - Olay Complete Defense SPF 30
Freebie - Dove samples
Freebie - Peta DVD (maybe we can use the DVD case)
Freebie - Traditional Medicinals
whew thats 7... I got tired of looking around

Freeware

The following are all software freebies that I have used and can think of

Spybot Seach and Destory - download here - Scan your PC for spyware,adware, etc
Ad-Aware - download here - Another scanner for your PC
Hijackthis - download here - Detects and removes browser hijackers
CWShredder - download here - Removes coolwebsearch and variants (try this 1st if spybot or adware are not loading)
LSP-Fix - download here - Repairs winsock 2 stacks
WinPatrol - download here - Prevent spyware infection
LeakTest - Firewall leakage tester
Gspot This util will tell you what video codecs (audio and video) are required to play an AVI file and tells you whether there installed on your system.
DVD Decrypter - DVD ripper and decrypter
DVD Identifier - Identify your disc's real manufacturer
DVD Shrink - Backup your DVD videos
Audacity - Audio recorder and editor Thanks to notpatelman this program will let you export to wav or mp3 if you have an encoder (this program let me record the customized instasong!)
dBpowerAmp - Audio ripper and converter; also includes the lame encoder (lame_enc.dll) which you can use with audacity
ExactAudioCopy - Nice audio CD ripper use this when a CD is having trouble being ripped (not freeware rather postcardware)
Picasa - Image organizer/editor
Mihov Image Resizer - Resizes fast and maintains great quality
Statcounter - Detailed stats for you website; still can't believe its free with no catches
Firefox - Gotta love the tabbed browsing and extensions
HTTrack Website Ripper - Great free website ripper use this for site with lots of pictures/videos to view later
Karen's Replicator - Backup files, folders, drives to another drive/folder. Great program to copy local user's files that have changed to a server.
Process Explorer - Lets you find out which program has a particular file open

I know there's a lot of other great freeware utilities out there. If I think of anything else or if you can think of others, feel free to just add it to the comments.

Summer Movies

Freebie of the day - For those who fish, free custom baits

5 Movies to look forward to in the summer:
For those who know me, this was tough to compile as I avoid commercials, trailers, and any information about movies I know I am going to watch.

1. War of the Worlds - June 29 - Steven Spielberg directed, Tom Cruise, Tim Robbins.



2. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - July 15 - Tim Burton directed starring Johnny Depp. Another combination that you can't go wrong with.

3. Batman Begins - June 17 - Same director as Memento, the cast looks good (Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson, and Katie Holmes) and the Batmobile is interesting


4. Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy - May 6 - This movie might totally suck especially for those who have read the book and with an unknown director but anything with John Malkovic can't be totally bad


5. Star Wars: Episode 3 Revenge of the Sith - May 19; You gotta watch this cuz you've seen the others and even if Samuel L Jackson is wrongly cast. When it comes out, go watch it and enjoy it. Just don't be like this dork:
I'm a babe magnet especially with my rad t-shirt.

Honorable mention - Fantastic Four (July 8, Jessica Alba)

Winter flicks - King Kong, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, and The Producers.
The only movies I'm looking forward to in the near future are Be Cool on March 4th and Frank Miller's Sin City on April 1st.
From Sin City

And for the one guy who was interested Serenity is releasing on September 30th and is based on the show Firefly.

Since you made it this far down, another freebie - Golf Balls

Valentine's Ideas

Freebie of the day - Free Snuggle Pure and Gentle

Patelman, Patelman what can I get for Valentine's Day?

How about a cool valentine's card where you can upload pictures and no registration. Its fast, free and easy - http://www.ewisher.com/ go there and click on create your own card. Another site that has interesting cards - http://www.1lovecards.com/cards/valentine.shtml

Or a custom made song (I've tried this and it's actually damn good)
goto http://instasong.com/servlets/InstaSong
Put promotion code bv200501 to get a free card. If anyone figures out a way to rip the song to your hard drive let me know.

I also got a luna candle for my wife at http://www.lunacandle.com/catalog/index.php use Code "forumers" for a 15% discount. I haven't given it to her yet but it looks cool. It looks like it works on a computer chip and fiber optics. Each basically has a computer chip, an LED, a fiber optic cable all placed within the candle. When you light the candle, it changes color.
Lets hope she doesnt read this blog. Took about a week to arrive.

Just saw this story - Woman Pleads Guilty to Selling Fake Beer
"A woman pleaded guilty Wednesday to selling on eBay three nonexistent cases of Duff brand beer - the favorite of cartoon character Homer Simpson."
"Duff is the beer brand of choice for Homer Simpson and his barfly friends in the animated U.S. television series The Simpsons.
In the mid-1990s, two breweries released their own "Duff Beer" in Australia until legal action by the creators of The Simpsons and the Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. took the beer off the market. Fox has a policy of refusing to license The Simpson's merchandising for products that would be detrimental to children." Link to the rest of the story
Her reaction after getting caught. "D'OH!

If you're interested and have a lot of money to spare (obviously you're on the wrong blog if that's the case) you can order your own discontinued Duff beer at this link.

Showers are optional

Freebie of the day - Free sample pack of HP Premium Choice Laserjet paper

While USA is wasting...err..celebrating Black History, India Begins Human Trials of AIDS vaccine.

Smell like me
Sarah Jessica Parker is launching a new frangrance line - link.
"Fragrance is a necessity on days you don't have time to shower," she said with a laugh."

Random bookmark:
Video editing/converting/media/software reference : http://www.videohelp.com/
Amazon's search engine (get a discount with Amazon for using it) : http://a9.com/
How stuff works - http://www.howstuffworks.com/

Microsoft, Google, and pink clothing

Freebie of they day - o.b Silk Ease Tampons
ok ok that was a bad one here's another freebie - Inflatable football and keychain
to get it you will have to click on "Order Publications", Go halfway down the page or search for " SVP-0074C " or football, add to cart, create account and checkout.

Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool
The Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool checks Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows Server 2003 computers for and helps remove infections by specific, prevalent malicious software—including Blaster, Sasser, and Mydoom. When the detection and removal process is complete, the tool displays a report describing the outcome, including which, if any, malicious software was detected and removed. The tool creates a log file named mrt.log in the %WINDIR%debug folder.
Download Here


Google Maps
http://maps.google.com/
" Google today offered up a new way to search the information superhighway for the best routes on terra firma's highways with a beta release of Google Maps.
Some are already touting the site as a vast improvement over offerings from Yahoo and Mapquest."
I like how you can drag the map around.

Speaking of Google, Picasa 2 is released, great program for quick picture editing and organizing pictures.
Download here

Later...oh wait in fashion trends... if you ever wondered what to wear with pink .
Do pair pink with a neutral shade that grounds it without overwhelming it: white, cream, chocolate, khaki and denim.
Do wear mid-range pinks like cotton candy with white.
Do mix soft blush pinks with cream or khaki.
Do go bold with combos like hot pink and grass green for preppy freshness.
Don't pair icy pastels together like pink and baby blue. Too cutesy.
Don't wear hot pink with black: it looks dated. Use white or even khaki as a fresher foil for your pink.
Wow that was queertastic.

<- this lady's got the best seat in the house

Free money!!!
It pays to read my blog!
Here's a free $10 gift American Express gift card - link
-You have to watch a demo & take a survey (takes about 5 minutes).
-You don't have to have an American Express account.
-Just hit No to the first question.

Do they even have blacks in Sri Lanka?!?

"American film-maker Spike Lee will be hailed for his contribution to black cinema as part of Black History Month in Sri Lanka later this week. Organizers will screen a number of the maverick New York director's movies - including Do The Right Thing and Malcolm X - in capital Colombo between February 10 and 14. A statement from the city's American Embassy explains, "In honor of Black History Month, famous director Spike Lee's works will be screened as Lee is considered one of the most provocative and adept filmmakers in contemporary cinema. It provides an opportunity to educate communities about notable black figures and the history of African-Americans in the United States. The embassy believes the films will find a strong audience in Sri Lanka given the contents of the movies to be screened." "

Random Bookmark:
Find out when you're the most fertile, ladies -http://www.americanpregnancy.org/gettingpregnant/ovulationcalendar.html

Playstation 3 will be a mini Supercomputer (debut date May 05):
"Sony, IBM and Toshiba are set to unveil the new microchip which will be the heart of the Playstation 3.

Later today full details on the new chip will be revealed at the International Solid-State Circuits
Conference in San Francisco.

The component has been described as a mini Supercomputer; partly due to the way it distributes processing tasks. The cell structure of the chip means instead the whole device working on the same task it can distribute its power to many separate tasks.

On a practical level it means if you hook a couple of the machines to each other they can utilize each others processing power. So two Playstation 3's connected via a LAN or the Internet one could use the others processor to perform CPU intensive tasks if the other was fairly idle.

The makers see this as the key to exploiting the increase in broadband where fast downloading of large amounts of data can put great strain on an individual CPU."

Sony will be using blu-ray technology for the PS3.

Playstation 3 architecture revealed - link

I'm just wondering how Xbox 2 will top that, maybe they'll put these pictures of Bill Gates on it:

Makes you just want to throw up

For those interested info about the picture - these were not taken in Teen Beat or whatever this was when he was 30 in 1985.

All the kids are doing it!

Freebie of the day - Sample of Sootherbs

A 4 year old drives to a video store.
" It was the third time in six weeks that a west Michigan child was caught driving a vehicle. "
Linky.
I guess without hockey, kids in Michigan gotta find other diversions.

Random bookmarks:
DNS information - http://www.dnsstuff.com/
Gmail reference - http://g04.com/misc/GmailTipsComplete.html

Be careful...

Freebie of the day - Lakota Herbal Formula Cool Sports Topical Pain Relieving Gel and Arthritis Topical Pain Relieving Gel.

Be careful when you download/share, your IP address might go into a database.

File Sharers Can No Longer Hide
"Uploaders to eDonkey.com, Bit Torrent and other file-sharing networks beware: The commercial equivalent to Big Brother is watching you."

"EDonkey and Bit Torrent are two of the most popular file sharing networks and use a technique called swarming that allows users to download slices of a file, according to BayTSP. These slices could come from a pirated movie or software application.

The swarming technique lets multiple users access the files for download simultaneously. As users download a file, they also share the portions they've already received.
FirstSource monitors for the first uploads of a client's intellectual property to the eDonkey and Bit Torrent networks. When the system spots a file name matching the client's content, it initiates a download to confirm that the file is what it appears to be.

Once the content is validated, the FirstSource system captures the Internet Protocol address and identifying information of other users downloading and sharing the pirated material.
The system also logs which portions of the file that each user shares. This data is stored in an infringement database as evidence in the event the client decides to pursue litigation against the file sharers. "
Read the whole story here. I'm sure they'll be a new generation of P2Ps that'll get around this.

On a related note, RIAA sued a dead grandmother.

I just saw my Gmail invites, it says I got 50 left...sheez they're giving them away like candy, hotcakes, and a $2 hooker in vegas. Why not just open it to the public? Does anyone really have 50 friends they can give it to? Except for the $2 hooker, she's damn popular.