Business

The latest Lego crossover, Army Men. Public schools just get crazier and stupider. Who doesn’t like a little fan service? Chicks + camo = Hot! The most awesome game room ever (for a nerd) Girls under glass NSFW The God of Fuck War Terminator #5 How to be a hoarder in 7 easy steps. On Sluts offers quick and easy Ho Side Assistance.

Want to see what happens when Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 becomes even more cinematic and movie like? Hit the jump for more...

Iron Man 2 Trailer, featuring more robots, more suits, more S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, more fighting, and much much more awesome! Hit the jump for more

If there is one thing that my TV screen needs, it's more Felicia Day. Hit the jump for more...

Where are all the crazed lay Democrats who were led to hysteria over how Bush strong armed his political opposition?

Did you see this strong armed tactic by the President's right hand man?

I can't be entertained by the politicians anymore, I expect nothing but the worst from them.

The lay people, now they are bad too, but I can laugh aloud at them.

Remember Gogo Yubari, that crazy Japanese chick that gave the bride a run for her money in Kill Bill, who was played by Chiaki Kuriyama? Well, it turns out that in addition to being hot and killing people, she can also sing. Hit the jump for more...

Screw Hurt Locker and Avatar, there is a bigger problem with the Oscars, and Stan Lee is here to tell you just exactly what that problem is. Hit the jump for more...

I'm sure that it has a political message that I am opposed to, however I can't stop laughing long enough to figure out what it is. Hit the jump for more...

The light bulb is dim I realized. Literally, figuratively, and metaphorically.

Early last summer I went to the local hardware store and came across those new compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL). The marketing was such that it moved me to purchase a sizable quantity and replace some of the incandescent bulbs that were in high use in my house.

It wasn't that hard of a sell, I've always considered myself an early adopter, that guy that buys in early on new consumer tech products. I was being increasingly exposed to the inefficiencies of the old light bulb -- mostly heat, little light for all the energy one consumes -- in print and t.v., and like the perfect mark, I bought into it all. The savings were going to be great!

That is until Day Light Savings Time came to an end and I realized I couldn't see as well with these fancy things. And did you know that if one should break, you need to call the local Haz-Mat Team?

Is it only coincidence that advertising for these new bulbs seems to disappear during winter when the deficiencies of the light is inescapable?

Metaphorically speaking, I hope the filters in your life are allowing the dimming of the whole Al Gore/Environmental/Global Warming bulb to be seen in your home.

I'll talk to you later, I just bought a pack of the old Edison bulbs to replace the replacements. I just may break one on purpose, to see that explosion, while I still can.

You ever play Heavy Rain? I haven't, but there seems to be a good reason as to why I should start. That reason? Well, it's the game's heroin, Madison Page completely nude. Hit the jump for more...

Star Trek was a good movie, but it could definitely have ended better. Here is one example of just how that could have happened. Hit the jump for more...

He is Beardfist McFistbeard, he is a motherfucker, and this is his story Hit the jump for more...

Another book by the author that brought you Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, this one featuring out 16th president, doing what presidents do best, kill vampires. Hit the jump for more...

 

 

 

 

 

"Why We Fight" is a title of an episode of HBO's Band of Brothers. Its a particular moving episode, on the discovery of a concentration camp in Germany, by the Americans, in the waning days of WWII.

My mind wondered to that series when I was asked recently if I've been on an Olympic hiatus from battling the dastardly villains of the liberal left.

The easy answer would be yes. I've been lax because I've been maxed out on Winter Olympics. I can't get enough of the Hockey and Curling Tournaments!

The harder answer is that, in this era of full-bore disgruntled, enraged, and engaged partisans, I'm not entirely.

Even more so, I have trouble finding inspiration from the genre to write about.

True inspiration, not the self-serving, media driven, cult of personality that is passing for inspiration now a days.

In fact, I'm equal parts indifferent and outraged, but they short each other out.

This affords me a sober response to the rhetoric.

I can't trust either side to get the job done, and it needs done like yesterday, if not yesteryear.

I'm a conservative and I vote, its not apathy, its that the GOP can not incite me where they'd rather I'd be incited, all the while I'm rather excited to the point of pulling that voting lever real hard next time around.

I can't follow anything real close anymore not just because both sides get nothing done, but also because all the while they're doing nothing, its claimed the other side is the obstacle and is distorting the issue.

The reality is that when the Republicans were clearly in power, they got nothing done and in 2010 the Democrats can't get anything done. I'm going back decades with some of these issues that neither side has made positive nor substantive change to.

I'm cynical about the whole establishment.

Truth they say is out there, but I can't trust anyone really has a grasp of it to tell me, and inspire me with it.

Q: I want to start a blog for a particular population segment, and I’d like to get sponsors for the blog eventually. My question is this. If I start with a WordPress.com hosted blog just to get some content out there with a readership so that I can then approach sponsors, can I later convert it to a self-hosted blog? Or would it be better just to start as self-hosted? My hope is to start up without the initial cost coming out of my pocket. — Mary

A: It’s not hard to move a site from WordPress.com to your own hosted WordPress blog. WordPress has a built-in tool for exporting and importing. On WordPress.com you can use your own domain name (www.MyGreatSite.com) for a yearly fee, and you can change your site design/layout for a fee. Both are less expensive than the cost of hosting a blog yourself.

I recommend that you upgrade to using your own domain name at the very start. Then, if you eventually move to a self-hosted blog (or if you switch to any other hosted service) and you migrate your existing posts and pages to the new space, the posts will have the same URLs (web addresses, like http://www.bigbigdesign.com/2010/02/faq-how-should-i-start-my-blog/). This is important because Google and other search engines will have indexed the content of your site using those URLs; if the page address were to change, then the value of those indexed pages would be lost. Eventually the search engines would find the pages again, but your site rank would drop in the meantime, and your traffic with it. Using your own domain name helps you retain your site’s value. The cost for using your own domain name for your WordPress.com is about $10/year — a worthwhile investment. You’ll also have to pay a yearly fee to register the domain name.

The design of the blog may not be a big deal when you’re just getting used to blogging — or indeed ever. The blog content you write is the important part.

Two key things you cannot do with Wordpress.com are run Google Analytics and run your own ads. The concern about not having Google Analytics is that on WordPress.com your traffics statistics will be limited to those WordPress.com provides for you. These show you the basic number of hits and visitors per day. If your prospective sponsors wanted to know more than your raw traffic counts, you’d have some challenges.

WordPress.com says that in the future you’ll be able to show your own ads on your blog. If that happens, then using the hosted WordPress.com will become much more appealing.

Photo credit: “Britain Going Blog Crazy – Metro Article” by Annie Mole on Flickr

 

 

 

 

 

I was never really a fan of the Elm Street flicks. I much preferred Jason to Freddy, but this one does look to be a good one. Hit the jump for more...

She's hot. She can act. She can sing. And now, she is apparently a blue haired Japanese girl. I'm sold! Hit the jump for more...

What impacts are right around the corner?
Organizations that choose to do so are already able to run circles around the web using these real-time technologies. I expect that some will do so and many will not. It will be like the difference between organizations that developed an effective web or email presence early vs. those that did not.

“If organizations want to be relevant and effective, they will need to incorporate some elements of real-time information delivery into their work flow. Be that pushing real-time updates out to their websites and supporters, consuming updates on breaking news in their sector in real time, or collaborating remotely in real time. Using only the parts of the web that you must refresh for updates, when you remember to do so, be they email or web pages, will soon feel like putting your ear up to a tin can with a string connecting it to some other tin can far away.

“I don’t mean to say that everything will be real time and you must always live in that flow, but I do believe it’s fast becoming an essential form of engagement. Not just because everyone is doing it, either, but because it’s really very useful.”

Excerpt from an interview with ReadWriteWeb’s Marshall Kirkpatrick about their “report on the real-time Web and how real time impacts the world of nonprofit organizations.” Lots of great information in the interview and in the report — not only for nonprofits but also for small business and independent professionals.

I’ll be writing more about the real-time web in the next few weeks. Stay tuned.