More Blogger BS

As much as I love Blogger after using it for about five years, I must admit that it has become the bane of my internet existance. Are you irked that I have not updated Scottdot in a few days? It's Blogger's fault. I have been getting countless FTP errors, dispite being able to access my server via FTP in Terminal. If things do not get better in the next week, I'm switching to WordPress.

Ughh!!!

I'm not down with the sickness. Sore throats make for miserable days at work. Hopefully I won't have to have another breakfast of vitamin C tablets tomorrow morning, as I'm drinking medicine now. Sleepy time soon with actual posts to follow in the coming days. I've got too much on my plate right now to focus on computer stuff, but all that will be changing soon. Beep!

Side Notes

Forgive me for never posting part 2 to my Albuquerque trip. Things turned sour when my car developed a coolant leak and I had to shell out over 200 dollars for repairs on Sunday afternoon before the four-hour drive home. On the flip side, we dined on delicious sushi on Saturday night at Yen Ching on Montgomery and Wyoming. I was initially skeptical about the meal while waiting, but when it arrived, I instantly knew I was being foolish! They easily prepared the best spider rolls I've ever eaten, and my old favorite with a new twist: the handrolled unagi! Spectacular, Yen Ching, spectacular (but the green tea could use some improvements)! Just like bad things, good things come in threes also. I had a spectacular job interview yesterday at the ads company, and things are looking promising. On top of that, today's mail delivery contained my diploma and the new issue of Nintendo Power! I don't know which of the two I was most excited about, until I opened Nintendo Power to discover a sweet poster and retro gaming stickers! I threw the diploma away at that point. Stay tuned for more "As the Scott Turns!"

Now This is a Chai!

Having decided to come to Albuquerque this weekend to spend some time shopping and hanging out with my brother, I have successfully visited the first four locations on my weekend jaunt out of town. First up was CompUSA, due to its close location to the interstate and clean restrooms. I even got to try out a 17" iMac powered by the Intel Core Duo! It was smooth, but not nearly as sweet as the 2.5 GHz G5 Quad that I tried with the stunning 30" Cinema Display. I gave Aperature a trial run for a good 10 minutes while I was on the phone with Kristen, and I must say that program is sweet! One day when I decide to approach digital photography more professionally (when I can afford it, that is), I know it will be a useful tool in my arsenal. Next up were the gift shops down on Central. I found a few small little trinkets for the kids and a gift for Kristen. After that, I walked a block down to where I am now, the Flying Star Cafe that I have mentioned and posted from a few times in the past. Upon walking in, I was instanly hungry and settled for a huge slice of New York strawberry cheesecake and the largest chai I could buy. Couple that with the free wireless internet, and you've got an establishment that I never want to leave! On tomorrow's agenda: sushi and tea with Jared. Stay tuned for the riveting second-part of my Albuquerque travels!

God Bless Russia

It's been a long time since I've seen this image. A sight for sore eyes, so to speak, as the March 20 release date of Tetris DS seems a long way off right now. I have no doubt in my mind that the gameplay will be solid enough to take a good two hours away from my Animal Crossing time. If you are like me, pacify your need to move colored blocks with the following: - Tetris-themed shelves @ Inhabitat - Tetris in real life @ Mega64.com

Digg'em!

You may or may not have noticed (most likely not), but I have incorporated links to stories submitted to Digg.com on the right-hand side of the site. Those of you who are not familiar with Digg, it's a "social news bookmarking website" where users can submit news found around the web, and you show your interest by "digging" them. Here on Scottdot, you can see the 10 most recently dugg stories by me. So, when regular updates here get slow, always check out the Digg section on the right. It's the best way to see what I've been reading about and what is interesting to me. You can also view all of my dugg stories on my Digg.com user profile!

A Dash of Pointlessness

I'm writing this while sipping on a bottle of Bundaberg Ginger Beer, something sweet and non-alcoholic to wet my pallet, and it's surprisingly good! Apparently, Ginger Beer has some sort of tie to the Harry Potter series, but since I am not a fan, I don't understand the connection. Nothing further to report at this time.

Reflections on Macworld S.F. '06

I know it's been close to a week after Apple's big announcements this past Tuesday, but with Scottdot's unexpected downtime and server switch, I did not get a chance to post my opinions on the big Mac news. So here goes! Once again, Apple has updated its iLife suite of applications, with its most appealing update being new iPhoto features and a new iWeb application. iWeb looks elegant, but like iMovie, it's something I really don't need. Podcasting support in GarageBand is a nice addition, but iPhoto's "photocasting" features remain to be the most appealing reason to upgrade. Photocasting works with a simple RSS feed and allows people to subscribe to one of your published photo albums using iPhoto. Steve Jobs describes this simple action as "magic," and could prove to be quite useful as an alternative to emailing photos. Nicely done! The only major downside is the rising prices of these upgrades. As a loyal .Mac member from the very beginning, I still stand firmly in believing that Apple needs to cut members like myself a break by giving us this software for free, as I'm beginning to think that an email account and a 1 GB iDisk are not worth my 99 dollars every year. The big news this year was Apple's first Macs sporting Intel's new chip, dubbed the Core Duo (at least it's not a Pentium). The most lust-worthy of these new offerings is the iMac. Steve also introduced us to a new era of Mac portables: the MacBook Pro. It's disappointing to see them stray from the PowerBook name, as it was easily the best product in Apple's line, but we all should have seen it coming. MacBook Pro sports an IR port and remote for Front Row media capabilities and a luscious built-in iciest camera. Both of these new Macs sport a lot of changes under the hood and Apple claims they are 2-4 times as fast as their PowerPC-based ancestors. I believe that the really exciting announcements from Apple are yet to come, as everyone wants a Mac mini "TiVo killer" in their living rooms that outputs in hi-def. Meanwhile, my heart is still set on Mac OS X "Leopard" and other new software that has yet to be seen or conceptualized. My thoughts on other new non-Apple products from Macworld '06 are coming soon!

Finally!

Many thanks to David at Site5 for fixing Scottdot's "zone files" and restoring peace and harmony to my quaint little website. I apologize for the longer-than-expected downtime, but it appears that I am now back and better than ever! More to come later this evening. I'm on a Mario Kart DS binge at the moment!

Holy Crap, TiVo Series 3!

I am convinced that TiVo engineers are victims of their own creation. You see, the Series 2 TiVo was introduced in 2001 (I think), and saw only one cosmetic facelift in its nearly five-year lifespan. It has taken the company more than four years to finally release the Series 3 TiVo, which at long last supports HD. I guess they spent most of their time watching The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Oxygen, skipping the commercials of course. However, as a satellite TV convert, it looks as though I will never own one of these new boxes, as they only support antenna, analog, and digital cable. You can check out more of what Series 3 TiVo has to offer by checking out an excellent comprehensive report at TiVoLovers.com.