The Adventures of ChipheadMike

Another few days, another update.

Although I can read the update summary as well as anyone else, I’m still not sure what this update actually does.

I’m sure it’s important though.

I’m sure you’ve all heard of “beer goggles” but here comes something really cool and really necessary for a few folks. (I used to need this but since I don’t really even drink an occasional adult beverage anymore, it doesn’t apply to me.)

If you have Google Mail or GMail, this option can be turned on inside of your preference settings. It’s under “Labs.”

The idea is that before you are allowed to send an email, you must first answer a few math questions. Obviously, if you’ve had too much to drink you will not be able to answer them and can avoid sending an email that you possibly shouldn’t.

Here’s Tekzilla’s Patrick Norton explaining the feature.

Get er done!

Ha!

Amazon sells more than books. They also sell music. They don’t have a handy little app like iTunes to help you navigate and browse around looking for music but if you can type it in the search field and it exists, chances are that Amazon has it.

They have no DRM attached to the file either. You buy it. It’s yours. You can play it on any MP3 device you like.

For the past few years, even knowing that Amazon was selling MP3s without DRM wasn’t enough to sway me to buying my songs from Amazon.

Until…

I decided to change my credit card in iTunes.

I have tried numerous times to change my credit card within iTunes and I usually get a ‘your card information doesn’t match what the bank says.’ Meanwhile, literally everyone else is accepting my new bank card and as well they should, it’s a valid card.

Because of all of these needless iTunes problems with simply changing credit cards, I have made the switch to Amazon. I had to change my credit card information with Amazon and had absolutely no trouble doing so.

iTunes never even presented me with a number to call to help me fix the problem. Just gave me an error message and nothing more.

Now I give them nothing more too. Right back at ya! 🙂

270towin.com

This website will tell you how a state voted in the past presidential elections going back until the late 60’s.

They also have an indicator of how they think a state will go in 2008 based on the polling data. Needless to say, they expect Obama to win just about every state.

Fear not. They said the exact same thing before the last election and the polls and pollsters couldn’t have been more wrong.

It’s my sister’s 40th birthday. It seems like only yesterday that we were both wearing matching “Winnie The Pooh” sweaters and getting our picture taken together.

Most folks thought we were twins. I was 5 years old. My sister was 4.

That was so long ago.

I had long brown hair and my uncle Dave called me “Hippie.”

My uncle Tom called my sister “Chele Belle” which she hated.

36 years later, my sister is a grandmother.

Wow.

Mac Heads. Run Software Update for the latest. Hopefully, they’ve fixed all of the buggy crap.

I couldn’t help but notice that my election countdown widget in the sidebar is saying “George W. Bush is EXIT.”

Me thinks that it’s been hacked. Stay tuned.

Update: (8:51 am) – I sent a message to the widget “distributors.”

You may or may not have heard about the Pirate problem off the coast of Africa. This region has been plagued with pirate activity for about as long as anyone can remember.

The international community is stepping up and now providing extra ships and manpower to combat this problem.

from the Times Online…

Europe is setting up an anti-piracy taskforce to help protect the lawless sea lanes off east Africa, where heavily armed Somali hijackers have overrun more than 30 ships this year and raked in at least $30 million in ransom.

At least 10 European Union countries have volunteered to contribute to the joint air and sea operation, which is expected to comprise three frigates, three surveillance vessels and a supply ship.

Britain has indicated its probable support for the taskforce, which could be in place within days to help combat pirates who have stepped up their hostile attacks 100 per cent in the last year.

This will effectively put the pirate trade out of business in the region.

The pirate trade was successful because it was small and relatively harmless in the grand scheme of things. I’m not downplaying the murder, mayhem, and other bad things they have done. I’m trying to put them in perspective. They stayed out of site for the most part and didn’t attract too much attention.

They didn’t need all of this attention and now, it looks like the party may be over. Whether by greed, a healthy dose of stubbornness, or a mixture of the two it looks like the pirates have attracted the wrong kind of attention.

It effect, they’ve made themselves “walk the plank.”

He’ll be missed.

from the Washington Post…

Paul Newman, 83, the actor and sex symbol who surged to stardom by playing loners as well as criminal and moral outlaws — anything to downplay his astonishing looks — died of cancer Friday at his farmhouse near Westport, Conn.

Newman was an Academy Award-winning actor and acclaimed director, and he used his fame to propel his political activism, race car driving and philanthropy. He donated all the profits from his Newman’s Own food company — more than $250 million — to charities and social welfare organizations.

I’m just dumping a bunch of posts I’ve been holding onto because of a project I have been working on this week and my keyboard problem. (see below)

Sorry. It looks like I’m going post crazy but I’m really not.