Todd's Blog

Here's a fascinating view of the United States, showing each counties' average gas price.  You can right-click on the map to see the actual sample price for that county.

http://www.gasbuddy.com/gb_gastemperaturemap.aspx

The Lottery Post membership has really started to create a very interesting set of blogs!

There is a really nice way to browse through the various premium blogs, and it will give a nice view of what's happening out there.

You'll see in the top-right corner of this page a small button called "Next Blog".

You can click that button, and it will go to the next blog in the series of all the LP blogs.  So, if you keep clicking that button, you can browse through all the premium blogs.

(Premium blogs are available to all Gold and Platinum members.  Any Gold or Platinum member can create their premium blog with a couple of mouse clicks by selecting Premium Blog Settings in the Control Panel menu.  There are a few dozen professional templates available for instantly creating just the look you want.)

Microsoft released a new beta of IE7 on Match 20th, which seems to resolve many (but not all) display glitches that the older beta had.

Also, the rich text editor support seems to be better and faster.

I still wouldn't recommend that regular web surfers install it, because it is still a work in progress, and many websites do not work properly with it yet.

However, website developers should probably get it at this point, because there are changes that will be required to websites in order to support the new browser.

For example, CSS hacks that are programmed into a site to get around IE5 and IE6 bugs will need to be addressed, so that they aren't used by IE7.  Lottery Post has a few of those that I'll eventually have to iron out.  It's a pretty big task.

How disappointing that the Sopranos reverted back to those horrible dream sequences.  They didn't even have talking fish to help salvage the wackiness.

And don't tell me the whole season is going to be devoted to Tony thinking he's dying or something.  Ugh!!!

Here's the Season 6 scorecard so far (from 1-10, 10 being the best):

Episode

1. 10 - awesome in every respect
2. 2 - saved from being a 1 because of some good lines by Pauley

If only they had this stuff when I first started building websites!

For people who want to provide secure pages on their website, there is now something called "SBS Instant" certificates, that only costs $30 a year, and takes only an hour or two to obtain.

It used to be that you had to go through hoops to get a certificate set up, like obtaining a Dunn & Bradstreet number, going through all kinds of address verification, and the process could take days (or longer).

Worse, it's something like $200 per year for certificates.  All to make sure that the little "lock" symbol appears, and you can get encryption on your website.

Now with the SBS Instant certificate, the only verification necessary is to receive an e-mail at whatever e-mail address is on the whois record, and they only cost $30.  And it only takes like 10 minutes to get the certificate.  That's just plain awesome for people who own small websites, and want to make them secure.

For those looking for these certificates, check out NetConnect, either through the small ad on the left side of the page at Lottery Post, or by going directly to http://www.netconnect.biz/secure/

This would have made life so much easier for me years ago, but at least it's available for people just starting out now.

I have a short, special message that I'm sending out this morning to people who write spyware:  "Die."

I am convinced that there is a special place in hell reserved for people who create this stuff.  Either that, or they will remain in Purgatory forever.

One tiny mistake on my part a week ago, and I'm still trying to get rid of some cancer-like program that is trying to wrestle control of my PC.

Try reading the gibberish below at a normal reading speed.  Believe it or not you can read it.

*I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid. Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer inwaht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt.*

Here's a great little quiz about how to survive in extreme situations.  You'll find it amazing how little you really know about what to do.

http://www.spicolisbarleybin.com/games/survival.swf

GOF = Goblet of Fire

I went to see the new Harry Potter movie yesterday (opening day), and I'm here to report it was very good.

Book 4 of the series, on which the movie was based, was and is still my favorite in the whole series of books.  It is a masterpiece.

Thus, with such high expectation for the movie, I don't think there was any way for the movie to live up to those standards, but it did come close.

The main problem, especially if the movie-goer had not read the book, is that in order to fit such a long book into 2-1/2 hours, they had to condense a lot of material.  Hence, there are entire sections of the book absent from the movie, and other concepts, like certain explanations of the Harry/Voldemort duel at the end, are not fully explained.

One of the nicest things about the movie franchise is that each movie is so uniquely different from the other.  You don't feel like it is another James Bond movie, where they have "insert criminal here" or "insert dangerous situation here".  Each movie is completely different, both in content and tone.

To the producer's credit, they did not shy from the fact that one of the characters dies in the book, and did in fact show that event just like it happens in the book.  However, the PG-13 rating is a bit of a mystery to me.  I don't know of any 8- or 9-year-old who can not easily handle the material in the movie.  The PG-13 rating of a movie like Revenge of the Sith is much more fitting that the one given to GOF.

The special effects continue to get better and better with each movie.  The dragon is entirely convincing, and very threatening.

Overall, a very fun movie, recommended for any Potter fan, or any fan of fantasy films for that matter.

Besides being a big Star Wars fan, I am also a bit of a Star Trek nut. The only Star Trek TV series I was not a big fan of was Voyager. It ever seemed to pull me in, for some reason. I suppose I didn't like the liberties they took with the Star Trek universe's concepts.

I collect the DVD box sets of the various Star Trek shows, and the last one I added to my collection is Enterprise — the last Star Trek TV series ever made.

Enterprise is a show set back in the time where mankind first went exploring in space, after they built the first warp 5 vessel. Naturally, the ship was called Enterprise.

I really like the show. It is very inventive, and each season follows an overall story arch, in which the whole season revolves around a basic goal or concept, and they sprinkle various self-contained story episodes in between.

The sad part is that the show was canceled after only 4 years on the air, so the season that I'm currently watching on DVD will be the last. How unfortunate! It seems that the ratings didn't hold up, and that's a crying shame.

So far I've watched the first three seasons, and now I'm about six episodes into the fourth season. Among all those episodes, there are a surprisingly few number of "duds".

The writing has been very good, and the writers have in fact come up with a huge number of really good ideas, including the development of the Vulcans as a "flawed" species, who evolve just like the humans do. When I first saw how the Vulcans were portrayed I was left scratching my head as to what they were doing, but now in season 4 it is all making sense. What a terrific back-story, making the Vulcans in other later Trek series much more deep in character.

The one character I cannot get enough of is the blue-skinned Andorian — definitely my favorite character in the entire show. Thank goodness they keep finding ways of weaving him into the stories, even though it stretches believability at times. Just watching his antennae "emote" is enough to crack me up. The writers must have had a blast with his character!

It will be bittersweet to get to the end of season 4, knowing that a really great show was canceled prematurely. I think Voyager must have turned off a number of Trek fans, like it did for me, which in turn hurt Enterprise's ratings. Enterprise is so vastly superior, and has so much untapped potential, it will be sad to get to the last DVD.

Anyone was is a Star Trek fan owes it to themselves to see all four seasons — in order. A really engaging experience, not to be missed.

Go Yankees!

Today I implemented a feature that will help Premium Blog writers at Lottery Post integrate their Blogs with the rest of the Internet community.

Every Premium Blog now has its own RSS Feed, and all Premium Blog updates (every time you make a new entry) is entered automatically at weblogs.com, in the "master list" of entries.

You can access your RSS feed directly from any of your Premium Blog pages, using the RSS icon in the navigation menu (right or left side of the page, depending on which template you use).

You can also access the RSS feed by URL.  For example, my RSS feed is located at https://blogs.lotterypost.com/todd/rss/.  Justy substitute the "todd" portion with your Blog folder name.

Any Gold or Platinum member at Lottery Post can get their own Premium Blog setup in a couple of seconds.  Just go to the Premium Blog Settings menu option in the Control Panel menu, and choose a title, description, and template style.

My goodness, might we be looking at one, huge online company called MSN, eclipsing half the marketplace?

Check this out:

---

Microsoft in AOL stake talks: source
Sep 15 10:44 AM US/Eastern

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Time Warner Inc. and Microsoft Corp. have been in business discussions over the past several months regarding Internet search and advertising networks, but not a joint venture, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

"There have been talks on ways Microsoft and AOL assets can be better leveraged and they've taken place over the normal course of business...," the source said, calling reports of a joint venture between the two companies "way overblown."

The source said nothing was "imminent."

Time Warner declined comment. Microsoft was not immediately reachable.

Various discussions between the two companies started some two years ago after the two companies settled a long-running antitrust suit that America Online, a unit of Time Warner, filed against the software giant, the source said.

Time Warner has been under pressure to boost its stock price, which has fallen 70 percent over the past five years. Corporate raider Carl Icahn this week said he planned to seek one or more shareholder-nominated board seats at the company to force changes.

Icahn has demanded the company raise its stock buyback to $20 billion, from Time Warner's existing commitments of up to $5 billion, and completely spin off its cable division.

Time Warner and Microsoft were said to be in talks on a joint venture combining AOL with MSN in an unconfirmed report published by the New York Post on Thursday.

 

What a delightful movie!

If you're looking for something different to see, this may be just the thing!  When the lights go down, sit back and be prepared to unexpectantly care about what happens to a group of penguins, which are -- at this very moment -- going through extrodinary things that you would never realize.

I was so completely taken by this movie.  Maybe it's because I was unprepared to care.

One of the great bonuses is the movie soundtrack, which is simply wonderful to experience, and is what I have playing right now.  The soundtrack is many times the "voice" of the characters, and it was written by people who took great care to craft a wonderful sensory experience.

Terrific piano, flute, violins, and percussion -- a real joy.

All in all, something to take one's mind from the unpleasantries of the world today.

I recommend you take your family to this movie -- all except for the fidgety MTV teens.  (Although who knows, maybe this movie can help some of those MTV types see beyond the blather that is force-fed to them on cable TV every day by horrible rappers and gangsters.)

Enjoy March of the Penguins for all of its many qualities.