‘Spam King’ suspect seized

Wow, I wonder if the death sentence is too harsh for this bum. Great job on finding him, but I don’t expect any fewer spam messages. Unfortunately spam is now a truth on the web.

This arrest, while giving me a reason to cheer, really amounts to nothing more than PR story for our government’s fight against spammers…a fight I fear is futile.

What will they think of next? Computer titan Dell is adjusting its years old strategy of selling its computers only through direct sales. On June tenth of this year, you will be able to walk into your neighborhood Wal-Mart and take home a brand-new Dell Dimension.

Hooray, I couldn’t be happier. I am sure there are those out there who will not like this development, but who loses? No one! Dell expands its reach to customers who are unwilling to purchase online, and they become a stronger company for it.

Of late, Dell has been struggling. The company who was once the stalwart at the top of the computer manufacturing list was overtaking by HP a couple of years ago and have been struggling ever since. What is it that HP does? Well, glad you ask…they sell computers at Wal-Mart, among other places.

Dell spent too long resting on it laurels and cut costs to the point of alienation of its customers. I believe this move will gain back some new customers and will push Dell back to the lead.

I know I hate waiting for computers, and I only by Dell for my office PCs. If I spend my own hard earned cash, I want the computer now. All that to say that I have a Dell at work and an HP lappy at home. (The HP is getting old, it may be time to purchase a new Dell…from Wal-Mart.)

http://www.osalt.com/ - is a great website that I just found, thank you life hacker. If you are looking for an open source alternative to replace an expensive piece of software, then this is the site for you.

I don’t know how long it will be around, but I have set up a brand-spanking new tumblelog. You can see it at murdog.tumblr.com if you are interested. I am going to play around with it and see if I like it.

So, what is a tumbleblog you ask…well, I don’t really know. All I know is it is a really stripped blog that is good at really quick and diverse entries. I may tumble-fade very quickly, and then again, I may find that I really like it. At any rate, I wanted the murdog name, and I got it. You know you have to keep the brand alive.

TIM ERNST PHOTOGRAPHY - This site is absolutely beautiful. Tim Ernst is one of the most gifted photographers in the nation and we have him right here in Arkansas.

Think about purchasing his photos for you office rather than those ridiculous inspirational posters for your office!

May 7th was my birthday! I am now 35, which means that I am halfway to 70 years old… What The Heck??!? That blows my mind…anyway, I wanted to blog about a new toy that I got for my birthday.

Now that I have a new television (32 inch Samsung LCD HDTV.) I have just past that nebulous frontier of having too many remotes to enjoy watching TV. I call it nebulous because you can add a remote or two (if you do it over time) and not feel overwhelmed.

We got our tax return back and we purchased the new TV, and we past that frontier. We had to at least two remotes to start everything needed to watch TV, and if we wanted to watch DVDs, we had to use three. That is too many.

The other day I spent the day with my dad and we went to BestBuy to look for a birthday present. We looked and looked until I came across a Logitech remote that is designed specifically for the XBOX. I showed it to dad and that was his gift to me.

I got it home, and I LOVE IT!!!! Programming it couldn’t be easier. Instead of programming it the way you do other remotes by trying different codes until your equipment responds, the Logitech XBOX remote is programmed via USB.

It is actually pretty simple. The remote comes with a disc that installs a program that allows you to reprogram the remote. I stuck that dude in and installed the program. Simple! Next I plugged in the remote and answered a few simple questions and then hit a big button that said “Update Remote”. Voila… It worked.

And it is better than standard universal remote because it has one button that does everything needed to say watch a DVD, or play a game on my XBOX or watch tv on my DVR. And, that isn’t trivial. I have to set my TV to the right input, and I have to change my audio receiver to the right channel, and so on… each activity is similar…very complex.

I have to take my hat off to my wife. She actually is really open to learning new tech things, and is very sweet about all my new toys, but the TV had gotten out of control. She loves the simplicity of the new remote. It makes life much easier. We love it.

In fact, Megan just came into the room where I am blogging and said that she loves the way the new remote lights up whenever you move it. What??!? She noticed something before I did. Apparently there is an accelerometer in the remote. It can feel motion, and it automatically turns on the light….Sick!

If you are drowning under a sea of remotes, you really need to check out the Logitech Harmony remotes. Sure they are $100, but that is not that much to pay for the simplicity! And, you are future proofed. This remote can work for you basically in perpetuity. (That means forever).

My days of being a Webbleyou.com customer are coming to an end. I am going to have to move to a new provider of space. I am not looking forward to it. I need some help, and some time to undertake the process.

I loved being on Webbleyou because they took care of all the stuff in the background, and I could focus on simply blogging. And, if you look at my frequency of blog entries lately, you can see that that is enough.

I like undertaking geeky things, but right now I am not all that excited about going through the whole process of backend blog junk.

I just went through all this in March. I was excited about that then, but now, I have been there and done that. I want to do something else. More to come on that in the future!

I haven’t blogged much, and to be honest, it’s probably because I am going to have to move my blog to a new provider and I am a little scared about the prospect. I just got to the point where I was feeling very comfortable with this set up. You know, with my blog being hosted by webbleyou.com. But, very sadly, that is coming to an end very soon. I have to make a decision as to who will host this site and many other ones that are still in the planning stage.

Another thing that has kept my attention was a one month process of trying to get my driver’s license back. I was driving Megan’s truck a while back and the tags were out of date. I missed my court date, and my license was suspended. Long story short, I just got my license back yesterday and I can drive.

I never knew how much mental wear and tear there is to not being able to drive. It sapped me. I was less creative; it was depressing. Man, it was good punishment for missing my court date…not gonna do that again.

I haven’t blogged it because, up until yesterday, it was still up in the air, and I didn’t want to accidentally blog something that would make it worse. I am just glad it is all over now.

Back to work… Man it feels good to be blogging again.