Web News

Google Puts An Ad On For Super Bowl

Dallas Thurn — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 13:00:42 +0000

Last Sunday was the Super Bowl. That meant companies would get to present their ad that they paid so much for to get it there. Google even paid the 2.5 millions dollars to get their commercial there advertising mostly their search functionality. It does include a few other things too such as, Google Maps.

The commercial is named “Parisian Love,” and follows a guy using the Google search to find ways to get after his French girl friend.

Be sure to check it out yourself:

What do you think of the commercial? What is Google trying to get at?

8 Reasons I Won't Renew Mobile Me

Dallas Thurn — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:00:22 +0000

I have been a Mobile Me user since I got my Mac Book Pro last year. Here are the reasons why Apple will not be getting my money.

1. Too expensive: Apple is known for its high priced for everything thing they sell. However, this service is ridiculously expensive for what it does. At $99 a year, I could have bought something better than that. If they want me to buy another year of its service, they will need to drop the price about 55%.

2. E-mail is not supported: Sure the E-mail is supported by anything do to with Apple. But when you go out and try to log into the account trying to find your friends on Facebook, there is no way to connect to your address book. If you are not new to the Internet, then more than likely you already have an E-mail account through a more widely supported E-mail provider. That E-mail service is most likely free.

3. Web App not alway functional: Mobile Me works great on Safari, but thats about it. Of course it would, its an Apple product. However, have you ever tried using Mobile Me on another browser? Its usually sluggish and slow. Its also goes to a crawl if not on a T1. It become pretty much comes useless in Internet Explorer.

4. Do you really need a place to store pictures: I’m all for backup. But putting them on here seems pointless. Yes its easy syncing them from iPhoto, but you need a separate gallery and need to update it every time you add photos. If you share your photos with your family, they better have a fast connection or they will fall asleep waiting to see them. If you want to share your photos, why not use a free service like Picasa.

5. File syncing can be free: I stumbled across a great service called Drop Box. It does the same thing as the iDisk does. You can also access the files online. When you sign-up for an account, you download a program to your computer There it placed itself like an actual folder. Anything that you put in that folder gets synced to all of the computers with your Dropbox account configured. They also make it easy to share files with anyone.

6. No iPhone App: Dropbox has an awesome iPhone App. In it you can actually view the documents as well. You can also place some files into it from the iPhone. As of January 13th, Apple did come out with a Mobile Me app, but it lacks features. Come on, its called Mobile Me Gallery.

7. Bad hosting: If you use iWeb, you have the option of publishing it to Mobile Me. This is not a very easy experience as it is hard to overwrite the data that is not longer needed for that site. Have you ever been to a site hosted with a Mobile Me account? They are usually slow and drop the connection to your computer all the time.

8. Features are no usable to everyone: Last year Apple released the “Find My iPhone” feature. This feature is only available for only iPhone users. But people that don’t have iPhones, still pay full price for the service.

Do you have Mobile Me? What do you think of it? Leave it in the comment.

Look for a post in the future on exploring alternatives. I will talk more about DropBox in the the post.

Man Creates a Site Dedicated to Crying Wife

Dallas Thurn — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:52:56 +0000

Theres a guy that has a wife that cries after almost every film they watch. It could be a happy or sad movie, it doesn’t matter she still cries. Her husband thinks its pretty funny. At one time they were watching a movie, and it ended. She starting balling her eyes out. And the first thing her husband does is get the video camera. He then went and posted the video on Youtube. Every time she cries at the end of movies, he is right there filming for an interview in between her crying.

Surprisingly she is fine with her husband doing this. And according to the FAQ on the Website, she is even helping him with the site. However, she is not an actor. It just come naturally and can’t stop herself. Good thing she laughs at it, or he would be sleeping on the couch for the rest of his life.

Be sure to go to the Website to see all of the videos and find out more information. http://cryingwife.com/

Follow On Twitter

Dallas Thurn — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:00:35 +0000

The Web Guy is on Twitter @itsthewebguy. You can follow this account to get all of the content that our site produces. Once in a while, when our site is being worked on or down, you will also get those Tweets as well.

I however recommend following my personal Twitter account @dalthu. If you follow that account you get all the content from this site and even more. You get randomness from me as well as some tech talk. Be sure to check it out.

Eventually I will be creating a Twitter feed for each of the RSS feeds on this site.

Ultimate FarmVille Tips

Kerrie Lynne Wyatt — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 12:30:43 +0000

I’m no FarmVille expert by any means, but i do like to help when I can. The following hints are derived from pet peeves turned positive, questions others asked me personally, and frequently asked questions in various FV forums. I usually attach them to ribbon and mastery posts, but here there are in one comprehensive list. Of course, FV adds new features often, so some hints may become null and void. Until then, I hope these tips help you become a better farmer/neighbor. enjoy! xoxo

*HINT no.1* It is easier and faster for you to farm/harvest and your neighbors to fertilize/feed chickens, if you “block” your farmer with hay bales or fence in your crops.

*HINT no.2* To “block” your farmer, notice where he/she is when you first load FarmVille. Use fences or hay bales to surround your farmer. Be careful not to make the corral too small and take note that the farmer’s position moves when you expand your farm.

*HINT no.3* If you aren’t going to plant, at least plow so your neighbors can fertilize. Yes, plowed land can be fertilized. However, it does not stay that way forever.

*HINT no.4* If you place an adopted animal or hatched egg on your farm, it is no longer available for collection. Please keep them in your gift box for a few hours at least so others stand a chance.

*HINT no.5* If it takes 4 days for a crop to grow, it takes an additional 4 days for it to wither. For example: if you plant watermelon, you only have to check your farm once a week.

*HINT no.6* Use “like” to keep track of bonuses (bouquets, eggs, stray animals, etc) that you have already collected.

*HINT no.7* You have a limited number you can send per day, so before you send free gifts, click the “My Neighbors” tab and send neighbor requests first.

*HINT no.8* Visit profiles of active farmers to find multiple postings (bonuses, animals, etc) that you may have missed.

*HINT no.9* In addition to checking the profile walls of active players, be sure to check BOTH your news feed AND the live feeds for bonuses, etc.

*HINT no.10* If you don’t like the way your fields look, you can delete the plots by using the shovel then re-plow.

*HINT no.11* Click your animals to “pet” them and they will show their appreciation. Also, if you don’t set them to “stay,” they will walk all over you.

*HINT no.12* Buildings, trees, decorations, and animals ready for collection can become obstacles for neighbors stopping by to fertilize your crops.

*HINT no.13* Most friends will honor special requests so don’t be afraid to ask them to send you something specific and/or when you’ve had enough.

*HINT no.14* Check what ribbons you still need BEFORE you sell/delete items, plant crops, and ignore gifts.

*HINT no.15* Neighbors are more likely to fertilize the crops closest to them and may choose not to feed your chickens if they have to walk far (or at all).

*HINT no.16* If you have mostly brown cows/chickens in your dairy farm/coop, you increase your chances of finding brown calf’s/eggs. This applies for all colors.

*HINT no.17* If you friend request someone for the purpose of gaining another FV neighbor, it is polite to “add a message” stating so. They may not accept if you don’t.

*HINT no.18* It would be helpful to others when you leave comments such as “these eggs are gone” or “this barn is finished.” additionally, it’s fun and beneficial to you if you leave comments such as “I got a golden gnome” or “I helped, please return the favor.”

*HINT no.19* If you haven’t played FV in awhile, you should check out all the NEW features!

*HINT no.20* If you have any questions to ask or hints of your own to share, PLEASE don’t be shy to send me a message. I will be starting at *hint no.1* soon, so you may want to grab your notebook. XOXO

You may leave your questions in the comments. I will be happy to respond to any of the comments that are made.

Top Songs of the Year Mashup

Dallas Thurn — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 13:00:07 +0000

I first learned about DJ Earwig, the creator of this video, from the podcast, Net@Night. The maker took the videos from the top 25 Billboard for 2009. Then he put them together to create an interesting video. While watching this video I discovered that he also had one for 2008 which I will include in the post too.

Review: Squarespace iPhone App.

Dallas Thurn — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 13:00:05 +0000

I was very excited to learn that the iPhone app. for Squarespace was finally released to the App Store. It seemed like forever. In fact, I learned that it was rejected before for a simple thing. Actually it was because the Apple approval people did not like one of the icons or logos that was uses in the app. I have yet to figure out what logo or icon could have made them disapprove of the app. The most important things is that it was released to the App Store.

Knowing that Squarespace is a top-quality and paid service, I was very surprised to see that the app was free.

Now Into the App:

When I first launched the app, it had me enter in my Squarespace credentials. I soon found out the the navigation of the app was terrible. Since i have many blog on my site, you had to go back to the setting menu to change between them. The navigation buttons are not were you would expect them either.

Decent offline capabilities of the app where nonexistent. Thats right… There wasn’t any. You need an Internet connection to edit your blogs. It simply doesn’t store your information locally. Not being able to work offline is useless to me. I live in a small town and many people around here don’t have WiFi (if they know what it is). The ability to work offline would be great for car rides, being a chauffeur, and waiting at the doctors office.

Editing:

Editing as another nightmare. My personal feelings for typing on the iPhone anyway is not an easy and comfortable thing to do. When working on editing on the web with Squarespace, you are able to add links, photos, videos, and HTML code. However, on the app you are only allowed to add photos from the camera. I am not quite sure why you can only do photos. The iPhone 3GS now lets you record video onto the phone and have the ability to send it. Not being able to add HTML to post is also another thing that disappoints me. I like to include Youtube videos in my posts. The app does not take advantage of the OS 3.0 update. The update features cut, copy, and paste.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, I thought the app was terrible . They need to make some major changes if they want me to continue to use it. Offline writing is big deal, and needs to be implemented into the next version of the app.

Review: Goolge Chrome For Mac

Dallas Thurn — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 13:00:57 +0000

I was very excited to learn that Google finally released their own browser for the Mac a couple of weeks ago. I always used Google Chrome when I was a Windows User. Since moving to the Mac, I became a real fan-boy of Safari. I liked the fastness of it.

So I downloaded Google Chrome:

After I downloaded and installed the browser (which was very fast), I was disgusted by the dullness of it. It was the Mac-link interface with the silver/grey color window. However, they made it look horrible on their browser. I was really hoping for the nice and cool looking that you see on the windows version of the browser.

After I forced myself to get accustomed (somewhat) to the ugliness of it, I started to browse around with it. It was the fastest browser I have ever used. Fast than Safari, Opera, and certainly faster than Firefox on my computer. It certainly got a very big workout with all the tabs I had open, 30 of them to be exact. Even with that many tabs open it kept going smoothly.

Countdown To the New Year With Google

Dallas Thurn — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 14:06:58 +0000

I found a really cool….. well I don’t know what to call it.

Google has a thing where you can see how many seconds are left in the year. So why not tonight get out your laptop or computer and open up the Google Homepage?

To get to it you simply go to the homepage, and hit the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button. Be sure you have not entered in anything into the search field. Right below the search box there is a countdown. It is the countdown to the seconds in the year. I wonder what happens when it reaches 0. Will it continue on to next year?

The only way to find out is to set up the computer by the TV, while watching the ball drop, and see what happens. I think this is a nice geeky way to spend your New Years Eve. If I feel like it, I might make a screen capture of it hitting the zero.

Auto Tuning In On 2009

Dallas Thurn — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 13:00:29 +0000

2009 is coming to an end in just a few hours. The person who made this video was very clever in making it. It is a mash-up of clips and voices that made news in 2009. It includes anything from Twitter to Kayne West to Jon & Kate. Check it out below.