PodCasts Explaned and Expounded

Lately, A friend of mine is callling me a "ipod toughy" and though I don't know exactly what he means, I'm hoping he isn't confusing my obesssion with podcasts as a sales pitch for an Ipod. Everytime I'm talking to him lately, I've gotta at some point bring up my obsession with podcasting, and I think he's assuming I'm trying to get him to buy a piece of hardware, and not just experience a verrrrry kewl new revoloution, and perhaps be on the bus closer to the front.

See, I'm a loud mouth with a lot to say, and opinions about most everything, so podcasting is my new best friend and future audio confidant. I've put together a few sample files and am getting ready to begin hosting my own daily / bi-daily / tri-weekly or whatever podcast on topics that make sence for people in my situation, (which is consultants working from home and bugging around internet looking for "stuff"). Instead of listening to what some program director thinks you should hear, you select what shows you are interested in and get only those. Podcasting is to the internet what pirate radio was to collage campus's around the world. It's like free porn, you can get it, enjoy it, and not feel guilty about it.

This being said, I'm not trying to sell anyone anything along the lines of hardware... you can listen to podcasts on your PC even without a ipod, and I listen to the Daily Source Code off my PC, everytime I get a new one. On my Ipod Mini or Creative Zen Xtra, I prefer things like Dawn and Drew, Daily Download and Distorted View for my drive time, and the Reel Reviews, Radio Adventure of Dr.Floyd or IT Conversations for listening time with the family. These are just MP3 (audio) files that are avaliable for anyone. Not a sales pitch, just that nerd friend we all have trying to hook everyone up with a kewl new technology.

Well folks, todays lesson is that You don't need an Ipod to listen to podcasts, they just took off on the IPod because of it's prevelance in the market. All you need is any computer and an ear for talent.... have a good morning all...

Ta

For More Information the following links should help you get started....

www.ipodder.org
www.podcastbunker.com
www.curry.com

P.S. To the guys from MixCast Live - Please please please please! Thanxxx

Some of the older artwork I did when I was working day to day as a designer. Let me know what you think folks?

ITunes Blows It

Well, mere days away from converting my friends and family to the Apple ITunes Software away from Winamp and other fabulous players, ITunes finally saps my last ounce of support. I knew it would happen... from my years of refusing to touch a mac in fear of being infected by some weard apple disease, I gave in when TechTV sent me my Free Ipod. Now, for the record, this isn't an inditement of the IPod itself, which I love like a child, but after updating to the latest release of ITunes 4.7.1, I've finally seen the horriable darkness at the end of the tunnel... They are no better than Microsoft.

What why how you might ask? Being the tech nerd that I am, and rambeling as I do, I got into the world of Podcasting, and adore it like there is no tomorrow. And at first, it worked like a charm. I would select my podcasts, and leave the computer up and running overnight to recive my latest updates, then when Bob and Tom were a little booring, or after their show was over, I would switch to listening to the shows I had collected during the evening. This was my Nerdvanna... I could select which shows I prefered, and they would be there at my fingertips. Well, with all this tech working so perfectly, and me being the nerd I am, I decided to check and make sure I had all the latest updates... the newest version of ipodder (which works like a champ BTW) and the newest version of ITunes... boy how I resent overwriting the last saved version there. Now, when ever a new file is added to my library folder (which I maintain in what I consider perfect order) the software won't even look for the files! No, the updates never show on the playlists, and worse, even though I can see the files in my folder, they are no where to be seen in the software. Using search of the file names, trying to refresh the library... nothing... So what happened? Well, I contacted Apple, telling them only that I had an IPod (so they wouldn't push me off because I had been awarded mine, which shouldn't be an issue, right?), and that ITunes is having Issue... that was several days ago now... and still no response. One of the MAJOR benefits of the ITunes software (at least in my view) was that I DIDN'T need to refresh the library, when the software loaded, it should automaticaly look for these files. Do I add them to the top level of the file folder? No, that didn't work... What should I do... but after remove, sweep and reinstall, it brought back my settings (which I DIDN"T want) and just went back to work, or not working as the case may be. Everything that was there before was still there, but nothing that had been coppied to the folder afterwards. So, ya blew it ITunes... it will take a massive leap of faith to bring me back into the fold, and even more so to ever get me to recommend you to anyone who takes my advice seriously.

Ok, so maybe I should do my googling, right? Well guess what, everyone that has a voice has chimed in on ITunes... and the resounding sound is that it just bites... no support avaliable (yeah, we want to see that stupid simple user demo again, sure, and please remove my fingernails at the same time) past mac-user level of instruction, no real technical answers, no nothing. So what's a guy to do? Well, if your like me, make your voice heard, and tell your friends and family, DON"T INSTALL ITUNES 4.7.anything. It's just no fun.

Ta

Scatter-gory Mind is Monkey Mind

For a guy who often let's his mind roam, this blog is more helter skelter than Charles Manson on PCP. I've found that the topics are far roaming, and that's not the bad part, but the problem comes in when I start typing at about midnight and finish my post around 2 am while working on my company's website. These posts (debunking the divinci code, no PCI-E please.... ect) are the most sincere of my ideas, but they are so all over the road that you almost can't take them serious. So as a minor nod to my few readers, I've decided to make the topics a little more strict, a bit more structured and readable. Hopefully this will keep my mind on the road, and perhaps get myself a few more readers and clickers.

Today, I'm working on my corporate logo, and learning the joy of using photoshop to create path based illustrations at the same time. I've been using a sketch my wife produced for me as a tracing image, and trying to put each part of the image into a separate path. While doing this, I'm listening to Adam Curry's "daily source code", researching design software to use for my new company, playing popcap's Bejeweled or pimprig's PoolJam, reading my RSS feeds, and drinking my coffee... And still wondering how my former blog posts are so scatter-gory. I just thought it was multi-tasking, not mental mess making.

Now how do you clean up all that mess? Renowned illustrator and animator Richard Williams pronounced himself not smart enough to listen to classical music and draw at the same time... And I agree with him whole heartedly. He wasn't, but today, the idea of playing Nintendo, drinking a coke, yelling at your little brother to put down other controller, and listen to the radio pump out 80's grog-rock (otherwise known as heavy metal today) is almost rote behavior. We of the Nintendo and Gen-X generations have long embraced the idea of multi-tasking even before it had a name. We can devote the appropriate amount of mental capacity to each, pausing one to accomplish another as time and task require. Clean up the mess? Heck, I want to create more... I've been known to listen to podcasts, drink a beer with a friend and play GTA - SA all while scratching the dog and thinking about my site design. I've been brought up with the tools to make this all work together, and I wonder if it's not a new paradim of listener / reader that we need.

Some people are convinced that a rambling oration is the sign of concentration loss, perhaps to be blamed on usage of schedule 1 substance (no, not PCP or LSD, just plain ol MaryJane). Or that it's just someone who can't put their thoughts in line. I say no, it's a mind that is contemplating a lot of things at once while performing daily activities. Like the smoker who can take a drag on his Marlboro Red without noticing that he inducing his daily fix and watch the game on TV, we are a new generation of adults who have always been required to perform several activities at once, just to keep up in today's Fast Food Break At The Red Light Not Before Scan The Headlines And Keep An Eye On The Road world. The only thing I'm disturbed by is that people are finding themselves to be addicted to this lifestyle, and with more and more addictive personalities out there, this is killing us as a society.

You see, before the 1900's, there really was no "work-a-holic", it was a good work ethic with loyalty to your company. But we gave it a name when we decided that we deserved recreation. We are to the point of imortilizing the work-aholic, making it the new ideal employee. Someone who takes the behaviors of our new generation and make them a lifestyle, now forgoing any chance of taking a minute to look at the sky in wonder. Is this a good idea? Perhaps not, because even the steel plant employee of the early 20th century took his family to the country for the weekend, but now, between laptops, palmtops, cellphones, pagers, GPS, MP3 players and countless other devices, we can take our addiction to the country with us, like a junkie packing a spare needle, and ruining our sons and daughters chance of gaining the knowledge of recreation and relaxation that our parents and grandparents so thoughtfully passed to us to store till such a time as we should pass the torch.

Well, I'm then going to make a call to all my Gen-X'ers, my Nintendo Generation, my so called "peeps". Work hard, make your life extraordinary, show you boss you're vested in your job, no matter how inane, and do everything you need to stay afloat in today's marketplace, but take the proverbial stop for rose smelling, and show your future that it's not a bad thing, at least not in small frequent doses.

So, with that, I'm outta here for now... Going to put more work on my blog, logo, website and home. I'll talk to you all later...

What's Adam done now?

Not even a few years ago, I found my self thinking, what's become of Adam Curry? You remember, the original VJ and seemingly perpetual host of MTV? The guy who not only used to tell us what video's to expect (incase we needed to set up the VCR) but also give us our latest music news. To quote the song, "where have all the good men gone?".

Well, I'll tell you where all the original "host with the most" ended up... Podcasting. No, not broadcasting, but something that may just revoloutionize the radio industry. Podcasting, with Curry as the undisputed GodFather, is the new art of producing a radio-esque show and making it avaliable (usually via a seperate piece of software, more on that another time) on the internet for people to download and listen to on their daily rounds. You pick the content, you pick the shows, and your computer can download, usually at night, the daily updates to the program... It's a revoloutionary idea who's time has not only come, but is deeply ingraned in the fabric of the past.

In the long long ago, radio shows were often the highlight of a persons day, from little orphen annie, to various spagettie westerns, the weekly drama and humor was delivered, on a set scheadule, to your radio for the whole family to enjoy... Kids and adults alike once gathered in much the same way my family crowds around the latest episode of "Lost" or "24" today. Now fast forward to 2005, Ipod's have become the major techie gift of the year, controlling over 80% of the MP3 market and for good reason with their advanced utilities and grandma-level controls. With this major revoloution, and music fighting to be free but loosing to the RIAA, it seemed only logical (at least to me) that someone take this idea and begin producing free entertainment programs... and from humor, to world, to what is being dubbed PodSafe, or generaly royalty free music, it's now all there for the taking.

How are people doing this? With everything from a complete home studio with production staff on sight to a young couple in their living room with a $20 microphone and headphones that came with their various CD players. There are educational podcasts created from lectures on journalism to modern cliff-hangers. There are preachers in Florida putting their sermons on the internet for spiritual clensing and nerds giving lessons in Linux for hardware clensing. With little more than the technology already in your home, there are people putting their hopes and dreams, sans script, out for everyone to listen too. And more and more, it's garnering wider attention.

Now I'm not going to get into a massive tirade about the level of quailty, or the fact that this is unregulated (I'm sure if you give it time though, someone will blame it for satanic worship) regular broadcasting of thoughts and ideas, but sufficent to say I feel this is a good thing, and when ever that happens, someone will step on the toes and take this revoloution away from me. For now, everything listed in the podcast directory is free and open, with only minor OPML lessons involved (no more than XML really) anyone with a voice and a PC can push out their feelings on a subject, and since there is even talk of VoIP being widely accepted, expect people to begin blogging with their podcasts from cell phones.

Recently, I acquired a new Ipod Mini, but just days before purchased and mailed in the rebate form for my Creative Nomad Zen. Thinking I would use the Zen as the workhorse and the Mini for style, I set about my life blissfully unaware of this gathering storm. Now, I'm stuck to my Ipod as if it were lifeblood. Listen in rapture, missing my turn off while Adam Curry waxes nerdesental about his trials and tribulations in getting his website working properly, laughing myself mental as Dawn and Drew, a young couple with roots on both coasts, make fun of life from their point of view. Dr Floyd keeps me howeling with it's 1950'ish styled radio adventures and the Super Smart Radio Whore Sex Show... well, I love them girls... and now my zen if regailed to the spot of spare hard drive and backup utility... I keep my music there, and my podcasts on the mini. It's blissful situation, and one I hope to continue for some time.

Who would ever take this away from us you might ask, and I'm with you... just who indeed? Mr Curry seems to be broadcasting (oops, podcasting) from a home in england, the canadian guys with their pc's boosted up to 11 are outside the borders of the US, so where will the regulation come from? Well, I'm not sure, and for one, I hope it never does. But that doesn't mean someone won't try... remember the efforts to cleanse the internet? Just moved all those people off shore and now they have less restrictions on their internet presence... heck, if the kid arrested in texas had just spamed from cuba or the bahamas, we would never have heard about him. So what's going to happen with podcasting? I'm sure I don't know, but if they start trying to control the US podcasters, look for me with a tropical drink in one hand, and map of saint someplace-or-another in the other... And searching for Adam Curry to shake his hand...

Ta for now

One Crazy Day

As I sit here wondering if anyone else is as bothered by what's happening today as I am, I think that perhaps we need to encourage a little more free thought... If Sadam Hussain were to have invaded a county to spread his morals and views, he would have had one of two things happen to him by the international community. One would be his capture and hummiliation, the other would be a trial under the rules of the geneva convention. Where does GWB get away with the same thing? I've had friends serve and die in the middle east, all in the hopes of finding these great WMD's that we were all promissed, but not until he had been accepted and confirmed for his second term did 'lil georgie admit that we are giving up looking, now it's spreading liberty... wait... how does the lack of our views in someone elses country constitute a threat? At least he should be truthful with the country, he's there because the son always feels that he must out do the father... and now that's about it.

Now let's talk about why he was re-elected... in the 80's, the Republican party was the boogieman of the political landscape. They were the big business and the upper 2% of the country, everyone else was the little man, and as such, we wanted rule of our country back... now, the democrats have become the boogieman, they are the hippie-out-of-touch wacko's that are only interested in saving the poor who won't / don't work. With the tax's of the 80's and early 90's, we wanted a break, and even though Big Billy C did give us a little break, he was still funneling our money to save our country, and heck with the rest of the world for now... let's fix what's at home... and now we feel both guilty about that, and worried that we are some how open for attack again, but wait, we had information that they were going to do it. How did we miss that one? Oh wait, Ms Rice knew about it... isn't she about to be the new Secretary of State? So instead, we started looking to God instead of country for our support, and even to help our future take some sembelance of shape.

(Aside - Just so you don't get all up in arms, during 9-11, I was not only a NY'er, my baby brother lives and works just outside manhattan on LI, and my mother was a brand new flight attendant, having graduated the FRIDAY BEFORE from her school, and working one of the last planes to land at JFK that day before the rest of the flights in the air were diverted out of the country. Not hearing from her till 2pm that day, I think I can vent as I like.. though I don't have as much reason as those who lost family that day, rest their souls, I do think I'm allowed reasons that others will never understand)

Your Nascar dads and Soccor moms are feeling more guilty about not raising their kids the way their parents raised them, and as such, they want the government to control those same kids. It used to be that your parents would walk into your room to see what you were doing, that they took an active role in the education and goals of our youth. But now... Oooh, kids are carying guns? Well, we NEVER showed our kids how to hate people who were different (sure you didn't), we encouraged our kids to be good, but we let them run wild instead... I'm waiting for SuperNanny to become secratary of education because she would institute the naughty stool in schools.

No, now we've forgotten that according to the republicans, women are to be mildly repressed, why can't you stay home and control these rowdy kids? How is that different from what the same people we are fighting in the middle east doing? How far are we from covering our women and making them walk 5 feet behind us? Maybe 1000 or 2000 years? Isn't that the length of the history the middle east has over the USA? (remember folks, we're only a few hundred years old as a country over the several thousand the middle east has). Yet women are voting republican because we've allowed a loss of personal control, and now expect our kids to be controled by laws and rules that are government imposed... We are affraid of being put behind bars because we decided that the same spanking our parents used as a diciplinary tool. We are allowing our kids to control us, and uneducated leadership isn't much leadership at all....

And on that, is it me, or is GWB the Jeff Forworthy of the presidental lineup? We got more upset about a president getting a little felatio than a president who is sending our sons and brothers to die for something mystical and (now) non-existant. Instead, we listen to him stutter through prepared speaches... Where is the Carl to his Homer? (I've spelled all the big words "pho-net-ic-ly") Oh wait, he has the best speach writers in the country, so how is it that we have to suffer with such bloopers as "Trying to put food on your family"? Ok, so no, the bump in his back wasn't a wire, obviously, because he couldn't be so undereducated? right? We've forgotten that he had a cocaine and alcohol problem in his higher education. Wait, the prez is an ex coke head? Did we all forget that? Yet the last prez smoked a little pot, produced a SURPLUS in our budget (which btw was gone in the first years of GWB first term) and brought with him a huge economic boom. But we all focused on his Daddy Gear instead, I've never seen the country so interested in oral sex, with the exception of the 70's and 80's swinger revoloution.

Oh how I miss those days, when technology was everywhere, and it was still the savior of the business world.. But it was for everyone. We now put such kibosh on those small business that they can't survive, and big business (I.E. Republican run business) took over by running them out. We ALL had the ability to have our own business, our own little slice of the dream. But now, unless your name is WalMart or BestBuy, you can only hope for a little regional popularity, or at least till you get a Target or Super-WalMart in your neighborhood. And PLEASE don't get me started on the RIAA, who have all but effectivly squashed the small musician.

Ok, well, now I'm rambeling... and my point is that I don't have one... I'm only interested in people learning to think for themselves, to control their children without fear of reprisal, and to remember, the very areas that are now "red" states were founded by people who would have prefered that we were "blue". Please, learn to think for yourself, learn that you are the parent, and remember that we are a democracy, our founding fathers would have been VERY upset about this war, we wanted freedom from the oppression of other countries invading our shore.

And Another thing...

What do you call it when the government is run by a family? When the son succedes the father in the role of leader of the country? What happens when a country (like England or someone else) runs themselves so thin because wars on foreign soil that they suffer at home? What is it when we tell our country what they want, and big business control the policy? What is all this about? How do you justify a war that has nothing to do with our shores, and ignore the true criminal to chase ghosts? Where do we get the authority to tell countries with thousands of years of history to change their ways, kill their indiginious people and force your views on them? Just what is going on?

The Zen Garden of Internet games...

For those who aren't too interested in every game being the same run-shoot-jump thing, or a FPS, also know as "Frag the Weak, hurdle the dead" style games, I've run accross the Zen garden of internet games... http://www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/ is the most charming little gameing site on the internet yet... it has class, it has wit, heck, most of the games even promote a positive message (awww, friends working together... ok, think I just threw up a little there). But seriously, this place is probaly the most fun I've had since doom 3 (p.s. which means I've not gotten my hands on a retail copy of HL2 yet if anyone wants to get it for me, hint hint wink wink). But for a good, simple fun time, this is the way to go...

Keep comming back

No PCI Express Please...

Who remembers the "old" days of PC's? When computers were propriarity abominations that could require entire makeovers or replacement if one part died? Then, for the last 10 or so years, the computer industry actualy LISTENED to their consumers... we like this, we don't like that... so there was no issue... we needed a better video pipeline that can handle 3D, so AGP was born.. we wanted faster bandwidth for our newdie newdie nakie nakie, so Broadband was rolled out. Well, with the introduction of PCI-E, I belive that the computer industry is going back to their roots of putting out what they want to, and dam the consumer.

Now, I will say that every trade magazine I read is pumped up with PCI-E, but what's that mean? They get demo samples and get more demo samples if they are nice in their reviews to the product, so how is this any good to the consumer? AGP is still a viable product, yet I've seen it declared dead in magazine after magazine, even though they admit that the only benefit is the amount of power on tap for the slot and the wide pipline, and that there is little that will take advantage of the arcitecture for many years to come. Again, So how is this any good? Users are still buying AGP products, and (hopefully) will push PCI-E out, but not likely... we're back in the day of the Packard-Bell (othewise know as the Edsel of computing hardware by those in the know).

Why are we back in the day of the hardware that the industry tells us we want? Simply, because there are more and more users with a small slice of knowledge who are no longer listening to those who work day in and day out with the technology. It used to be that a person would have to ask their knowledgable friend about what to buy, and would listen, but with easier and easier components to install, people with less and less knowledge are building their own computers. No longer do you have to ask a friend to help you out, all you need to do is purchase enough of the products involved, and each one comes with a friendly install sheet. Processors to Water Cooling systems, that used to be the domain of the knowledgable are all now fair game for the High School kid who has a screwdriver, and with this, we have gone from people with experience building PC's to everyone who has spare cash and free time labeling themselves as an system builder... Well I say ENOUGH! It's time for the industry to just improve on what they already have and cut out the crap... why couldn't AGP have another itteration that included a few extra pins for power and pipeline included? That way I could move my new Radion from an older PC to one that has AGP 16 with the option to buy a new card later... No, it's new form instead... yet another issue that makes me crazy. Even PC modification had been corupted by the weekend warrior with a dremil... My little brother worked for months to fit his custom window to his case, but now all you need is a pencil, some masking tape and a jigsaw, and if you screw it up, well, they will happily sell you a new case side... AAAARGH!

I've had it proposed to me that this is an effort to "Revive" the computer hardware industry, but this isn't going to happen... Remember when telephones were still obscure? No, neither do I, but they went from being a tool to a lifestyle, and when they became a lifestyle, they also became propriarity... you would have to buy or more likely lease the phone from the phone company... and people suffered, till they finally came back around and realized that even though a lifestyle, they were also a tool... this resulted in every body in the world producing phones for sale. When that happened, we all got a reprive from the bad phones leased by the telco's, and phone technology was finally driven by the consumer wants, not what you were told you would have. This needs to happen to the IT industry, we don't need to be told what we want, we already know, and would like it in the best shape possible, till some newer technology comes along that requires it, and from what I can tell... Doom and HalfLife 2 run just fine on AGP. Thank you very much, now get your crapy little slot out of my face....

TTFN

P.S. Unless you can tell me that PCI-E will produce and support holographic display.. then sign me up. Yeah HeadCrabs in 4D!!! W00T!!!

P.P.S Same with Websites... No, just because you can create a brochure in Word should you label yourself a Webmaster... Shame on you... Frontpage back-ally creatns... if you can't configure Apache in one evening you are just a office schmow... not a Webmaster

Debunking the Divinci Code

Why is it that the History Channel is debunking the DiVinci Code? I was watching tonight, and there was an entire program based on that book.... what's that about? I mean come on, this isn't history! Is this book such a threat to the open minded that the History Channel needs to base a program about it? Maybe this alone should be enough to make people look at the book as more historical than fictional.

On the show, the entire tone was one of skepticism... which in itself isn't a bad thing, but it isn't history... and more than that... there was quite a bit where the lack of proof was taken as proof itself. This isn't history either... if there isn't proof one way or the other, than there is NO reason to doubt or belive, but they used the lack of evidence to as basis for proof... well, if that's the case, all the books burned by the Nazi's never existed, because there is no proof that they existed... right? Those fires they held were all made of wood... My my, what a wicked web we weave... and DiVinci wasn't a member of a secret sect because in his public writing, he never mentioned it... what kind of proof is this? I would think a grand master of a secret orginazation would probaly be pretty hard put to publicize it... might get his title striped.

Ok, ok, I babbeling like a brook, but I'm a little upset that the channel devoted to history decided to take a simple book and "throw the book at it" (so to speak) instead of just presenting what is historical fact and letting the intellegent turn their own minds on to it. This is almost republican propaganda in my estimation. Perhaps if they hadn't made such a fuss, with the narator constantly going on and on about how this isn't and that isn't because it wasn't recorded I would have had a more open mind about disbeliving it, but now I'm almost a convert to the idea that Mary Magadlin was the holy grail. She had the lable prostitute removed in 1969 by the church, according to the show, but having grown up and educated in a catholic school well after that, I know that the church may have offically removed it, but the practice was to still label her as such. (thanks Our Lady Help Of Christians). And when they talked of the historical basis for other ideas, that were debunked because of lack of evidence, they failed to tell me what the basis for the denial was... oh wait, it was that there was no evidence again... AAAARGH, it's all so frustrating.

Anyway, before that was an entire show on the bible code... anyone ever heard of this? Appearently, there are hidden messages in the hebrew translation of the old testiment... otherwise called the "jewish section" of the bible (again, thank you OLHOC). Twin Towers, Osama BinLaden, even the year 2012 (the end of the world or end of times) all these and much more that has troubled our world, but all just speculation according to the show. Do the jewish know something that the catholics don't? I'm almost tempted to become jewish just to get more information. I mean, it was a little creapy, but using the same technology, they "said" that the death of JFK was predicted in the book "Moby Dick", but never told me what the actual phrases in the book were when found... and that means they weren't as forthright as the phrases found in the old testiment. Wow, yet another bit of trash talking in my esitmation.

Perhaps I should just stop watching the history channel for a little while, fake history makes me mad, but not as mad as history or fact that is distorted by an editorial view... Open your minds people, it may not be your cup of tea, but look inside and tell me you don't find a problem with debunking a theory because it had no proof one way or another. Hope everyone can find it in their heart to start using their mind...

TTFN!

Life, and what it takes....

Well friends and countrymen... (and women) it's been a LONG time since I last posted to my blog, but with good reason... you see, I just finished both an update to my current project website (www.pendem.org), purchasing the domain for my new business (www.americancomputersupport.com, nothing there yet) and playing GTA:SA, or as I like to call it, crack for ps2. Not that I think anything should be taken away from me, but this was way too much to work on... now its time for a break... so I'll just be working on my pages (acs will be up and running by weeks end I hope). But I've got little time and lots of things to finish.... so till sometime this week... TTFN ALL!!!!!