Skype has announced that, until the end of this year, all calls to US and Canadian landlines and mobiles will be free. No credits to buy, no sign-up fee, no strings. It’s an old marketing move, but it’s got 4752 diggs and climbing.
Link to Official Skype Blog
Category: Uncategorized
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Free calls to all landlines and mobile phones within the US and Canada with Skype
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New Gear – Camera
My weathered camera, an HP c610, finally started to have ghosts. It would randomly shut off on fully-charged batteries, constantly forget the date (which means that I’d have to set it up every time I started the camera), and generally was taking more and more time to get “quick” snaps. With vacation rapidly approaching, J– and I talked about getting a new camera.
Keep in mind that the last time I was shopping for digital cameras, I was on the bleeding edge; 2 Megapixels, built-in flash, auto focus with a bright LCD display ran around $500-600. Big cash for me back then.
But now, with the purchase of our new camera (which we independently chose), less than $200 gets us a pretty nice camera. We bought the Sony DSC-600, a 6 Megapixel unit that is half the size and weight of my old camera, takes clear photos and videos (which my old camera didn’t), and draws less power (two batteries have last through well over 6 hours of on-and-off use). All in all, pretty happy. With a 1 Gig expansion card, we can take over 300 photos in one go or almost 45 minutes of video.
Vacation will be the true test. I’m geeked just to have a new toy. (Stop rolling your eyes J–).
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Stupid Evil Bastard: Blizzard unveils new male Bloodelf dance at E3.
The dance for the new race in World of Warcraft has made it onto the web. Thanks to Les (again) at SEB for the video and for feeding me more (relevant) news than almost anyone.
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Up and running
This site now runs on WordPress. Goodbye Movable Type, you freakin’ slow-ass software.
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New Pearl Jam – Best in Years
Pearl Jam has a new self-titled album out. Get it, listen to it. Do it now. If you liked one track off of Ten, go get this album. It is not the Vedder-centric crap of Vitology or *shudder* No Code. I gave up on Pearl Jam years ago; this album brought me back. It’s also not whiny emo crap, just straight-up rock and roll with a touch of that old Pearl Jam vibe.
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Doogtoons Asks a Ninja
If you’ve never seen Ask a Ninja or Doogtoons, you can get the best of both in this YouTube video. Ask a Ninja is one of the funniest bits on the ‘net; you should check it out.
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Woo hoo! Holland FTW!
Via Darren Barefoot (one of the better blogs on the Web, IMO), comes news of Goldman Sachs handicapping the World Cup. Holland is an 8.0% chance to win (fifth in the Goldman Sachs rankings). They do so need to win. Voetball! Go KNVB!
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40% of American adults play video games
Under what is quite possibly the stupidest headline ever written by Wired (“Who Shall We Kill Tonight”) is the story about the AP-AOL Games poll that showed 40% of adult Americans play video games. Now, aside from the obviously vested interest in inflating that number, why is this such a surprise? The article’s example is a 29-year-old graphic artist, someone who would spend a considerable amount of time on a computer and would be drawn to that platform for entertainment. And, at 29-years-old, squarely in my generation, this gamer is someone who, like me, probably grew up during the high-points of gaming to date: Commodore, Atari, SNES, Doom and the advent of online gaming. We’re a generation weaned on video games and the generation that brought those games and platforms into the homes of our families.
The really interesting point in this article, which I’m not certain was correlated in the poll, was the amount of TV that this group watches. I know I share the feelings of the illustrative quotee in the Wired story when she says: “I watch less and less TV. I turn it on and the shows are just idiotic[.]” Every $REALITY_SHOW_N that pops up is one more nail in the coffin of my advertiser-funded television viewing. Even the news is idiotic, with placed ads, no objectivity, and the integrity of a ruble.
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Remember this story in the next week
Barry Bonds is one homerun away from tying Babe Ruth for all career homers. It couldn’t have happened to a bigger asshole. Bonds is the epitome of everything wrong with baseball: inflated salary, no respect for team or teammates, alleged drug use, and a dick to fans.
Case in point, HR 713. It’s the perfect story for a ball player. Air Force serviceman buys $20 ticket ($20?!?!?) and catches HR 713. Air Force serviceman gets into news conference and asks Bonds if he would sign the historic ball. Bonds says nothing (to his credit, last year he would have said “no”). He does take a photo with the guy, but only if the serviceman will sign a (what? a what?).. That’s right, a waiver for Bonds’ reality TV show. Hmm, wonder what motivated Bonds to do the photo op?
He’s going to get the record (with no star by it either) and there’s nothing that can stop him. It’s too bad, baseball used to have some class.