Monday, February 9, 2009

Porn star for senator?

Wow.

Louisiana must be in pretty bad shape if it's trying to get a porn star to run for state senate. Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against the porn industry, but I also don't think that someone from this line of work is fit to be in such a position. It seems to me this was really just something to attract attention to the senate election in Louisiana and the current senate's questionable history. In fact, Daniels admits in her interview with CNN that "originally the focus wasn't even about making me a candidate, I think it was about bringing attention to the senate race in general." However, it seems that some people are beginning to taking this whole thing seriously.

A lot of people are beginning to take this seriously, which is really disheartening considering I thought the country was just beginning to go in the right direction. Although Ms. Daniels seems quite articulate and educated in her interviews, this doesn't even begin to make her a truly viable candidate for senate. People need to stop getting caught up in publicity stunts and start thinking about people with real experience and knowledge of government and politics.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

The funniest answer to the question. What is podcasting?

This is a video I saw on askaninja.com (one of the comedy websites I recommended) a while back. It's probably the funniest way I've ever seen podcasting explained.
Enjoy!



Best Collegehumor.com videos!

     In my previous blog I mentioned Collegehumor.com as my one of my favorite comedy sites. However, for people who have never seen the site before I thought it might be convenient to mention some of the funniest videos I've seen on the site (since there are some that are worse than others).
Just be prepared to laugh (or sometimes gasp in shock).



     There is also a series of videos called Jake and Amir (some of which are on collegehumor.com) which feature the hilarious interaction between a total idiot who assumes he is best friends with an extremely annoyed co-worker. These videos are all posted on www.jakeandamir.com.

Economy got you down? Do you feel like you need to laugh?

     Economy, wife, in-laws or work got you down? Do you feel as if you just need to laugh it off? Well, dear reader, you've come to the right place! You see, as a big fan of comedy myself, I've found places on the internet where you can see some good, high quality comedy every day of the week! Here are some of those places:

  • Collegehumor.com - By and large one of the best dedicated comedy sites on the internet. They consistently deliver hilarious, high-quality videos nearly every day! By now, they've built up an extensive library of videos made by their own staff, as well as videos submitted by the online community. Furthermore, they have hysterical comedic articles that will have you laughing for hours on end!

  • Askaninja.com - The idea was simple: a ninja answering questions about his craft in the funniest way possible. It started off as a humble Youtube channel and eventually evolved into a successful standalone website. This ninja has almost 100 videos that may literally kill you with laughter.

  • youtube.com/sxephil - Although this is somewhat of a niche in the online comedy world, it is one that I find myself coming to time and time again. Philip Defranco, a fairly popular man in the youtube world, delivers his almost daily online show (The Philip Defranco Show) to over 300,000 subscribers. In this show, he wraps up popular and unusual news in a package that is more entertaining than CNN would probably make it.
So, suffer no more internet surfers! After all, laughter is the best medicine!
Unless you're having a heart attack, in which case, you really need to call an ambulance man.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Barack Obama and his Presence on the Web.

     One of the things Barack Obama has always focused on is more transparency of government functions. The primary means through which he would achieve this was through the internet, and, after taking a look at President Obama's new home page, whitehouse.gov, I must say I'm quite impressed.

     To begin with, I can confidently say a significant amount of time was poured into the creation this website and it certainly isn't a half-baked idea. It's evident thought and planning were put into making the website visually attractive and robustly functional, a feat which is often not accomplished by many modern websites. The fact that this website is so well engineered speaks volumes about President Obama's understanding and commitment to the internet. Furthermore, although this is somewhat unrelated, it also gives me more reason to believe that our new president will be the avid supporter of net neutrality that he said he would be. 

     Primarily, I believe this website has successfully opened up the government, made it more transparent, and connected with a vast number of people. For example, all of President Obama's policies and many, if not all, of his future plans are posted on this website for all to see. Furthermore, President Obama has mentioned that he will be posting any bills on the site for at least 5 days of open comment before signing them. Lastly, the site is also home to President Obama's weekly address to the people of the US. Here, the President explains the current state of affairs in the US and what his administration is currently involved in doing.

     Overall, I feel as if the President and his team of excellent web designers have done a commendable job of making a strong presence on the web and making the government more transparent for tax payers.

Monday, February 2, 2009

College + Money = Happiness

     A friend of mine recently asked me for advice on paying for his college classes. I realized that, in today's economy, many people must be having trouble paying for anything, to say nothing of college classes and books. In light of this, however, I must say: fret not brave college students!

     You see, for those of you who live in the US like me, our society tends to value education above almost anything. That means that people who consider giving large sums of their money away often turn to scholarship funds and grants to help young people to pay for their education. So, there is a lot of money to go around, especially for people who get good grades.

     Now, you might be wondering, where is all this money? Well, it certainly isn't going to fall onto your lap, you have to go out and find it. Here's some places you might want to start looking:

  1. Facts.org - This is a fantastic website dedicated to all types of information regarding college. From information on varying scholarships and even ways to start applying for college, facts.org is a great place to start looking for information and money!
  2. Fastweb.com - A website I would consider to be the gold mine of college money, fastweb gives you a comprehensive list of any scholarships you might be eligible for. On top of that, it gives you constant E-mail notifications when any new scholarships get added to your list! The only problem is that the scholarships often require significant amounts of writing and then waiting to see if you are picked as the winner of the money. However, if you don't mind writing and you are confident in your skills, there's a lot of money to be earned!
  3. The financial aid counselors at your college - Sometimes overlooked, these creatures of the light can often help you be on your way to a well funded college experience. Every self-respecting college (that I know of) has them, you just have to find them!!
Hopefully, this helped some college students in financial troubles!

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Anti-WiFi Paint

     Don't you just love it when you're on vacation, or you don't have internet in your house, and a neighbor just so happens to have a usable WiFi network you can leech off of? I mean, come on, who doesn't like free internet?! Nobody!

     Well, unfortunately, the days of free internet may well be over with the invention of WiFi blocking paint. Oh, you read that right, paint that blocks WiFi signals. So, in theory, someone could paint their house with this, and your free internet would be gone forever!!!

     In all seriousness, for large scale corporations this could be quite useful for security purposes. Being able to block any other parties from connecting to their networks could prevent intrusion from malevolent hackers, or just people who could steal away their bandwidth. And they could do this without the need for expensive hardware or cumbersome software.

     So, for all you internet stealers out there, you might need to start paying for your own internet...

     Yes, that's right, internet does cost money.