James M. Burke

As always, this is late. On June 19, the Carolina Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup defeating the Edmonton Oilers in a very intense Game 7 here in Raleigh at the RBC Center. I must admit, I’ve never been much of a hockey fan, but with the Hurricanes being Raleigh’s only professional team (and doing so well), I really enjoyed watching the games. I wasn’t willing to pay the $120+ for tickets during the playoffs, but I did watch most of the playoffs on TV.

One of the other fun things about this was that my cousin Elizabeth in Phoenix is an Edmonton Oilers fan. There were many emails and text messages sent back and forth between us during the finals…it was all in good fun. : )

Congratulations to the Hurricanes, and who knows…I may just end up buying some tickets next season.

Sorry for the lack of updates everyone. I’ve just been so busy at work that I haven’t had much time to blog. There’s lots of interesting things to note — hopefully I can get caught up…

Last month, I made a post called Made the Switch (back) - in this post, I noted that I made the switch back to a PC, because I am a Windows developer. Well, I couldn’t stand it - and ended up switching back to a Mac…that’s right, a Mac. I had many problems with the Gateway Convertible - and most of them occurred when I tried upgrading to Windows Vista. All in all, I just didn’t like the design of the Gateway Convertible…it was too heavy, and I really didn’t use the tablet functions like I thought I would. I missed having my PowerBook - so I went and got a MacBook Pro. I’m loving it — very powerful machine!

Tonight, I will be participating in the NetApp Annual UNC-TV Pledge Night. Here is some more information about UNC-TV:

UNC-TV is North Carolina’s only statewide public broadcasting service that is made possible through unique partnerships, public investments and private support that makes up one third of it’s annual operating budget.

View: UNC-TV ONLINE, North Carolina’s State-Wide Television Network

How does $5 for free sound?  TextPayMe is giving every new user $5 and for referring 36 people, you get a free Xbox 360.  Chris Pirillo has already won 3 Xbox 360’s using this service.  Sign up for free here.  Basically the service allows you to send payments to people securely using your cell phone.  You simply send a text message saying “pay 5 2065551234″ and it will call you back to verify and securely sends $5 to 206-555-1234.  Very neat service - if nothing, you should sign up, try it and take the free $5.

Sign up for TextPayMe and get your free $5.

Someone sent me this article yesterday, and I must say that it doesn’t surprise me.  Today, people seem to sue companies for pretty much anything — some people will do anything for money…

New York (February 2, 2006)–Apple is under fire for its popular iPod music player, as the first known–and perhaps inevitable–hearing loss lawsuit has been filed against it. A complaint was filed Tuesday at U.S. District Court in San Jose, CA. John Patterson, a Louisiana man, is suing, asking for unspecified damages and upgrades that will make the players safer.

Of note to the pro audio and touring industries, the complaint also places blame on ear buds, noting that they can cause hearing loss as they “do not dilute the sound entering the ear and are closer to the ear canal than other sound sources,” according to the Associated Press.

Interestingly, the suit does not note whether Patterson suffered hearing loss from an iPod which he purchased last year. The complaint alleges that iPods are “inherently defective in design and are not sufficiently adorned with adequate warnings regarding the likelihood of hearing loss.”

Read More:  ProSoundNews Online Daily - Apple Sued for iPod-Induced Hearing Loss

The famous digital animations company, Pixar Animation Studios will be purchased by Disney for $7 billion in stock. The board of Pixar meets today to approve the Disney takeover. Pixar was created by Steve Jobs, the current CEO of Apple Corporation in 1986 when he bought the animation division of Lucasfilm (owned by Star Wars creator, George Lucas) for a mere $10 million. Since 1986, Pixar has produced movies such as Toy Story, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, A Bug’s Life, and Monsters, Inc. This takeover by Disney will make Steve Jobs the largest Disney shareholder with a total value of $3.5 billion. With the price being 25.52 at yesterday’s closing — that means he’ll receive over 137 million shares of Disney stock.

Source: Neowin.net - Pixar buyout for $7 billion

I know this isn’t “tech” related….but for those of you who’ve been around here for a few years know that I used to have a game hosted on here called Legend of the Green Dragon (LoGD). It is a PHP/SQL based version of the popular Bulletin Board System (BBS) game, Legend of the Red Dragon by Seth Able Robinson. Well, I have just put the game back online….and there are a TON of new features! I’ve also added a discussion forum for LoGD to the forums. Go check it out…and if you have any questions/comments/suggestions, feel free to post them to the forums or send us an email.

http://www.jbctech.com/game

When I got into work this morning, I checked my RSS aggregator to see what new posts were out there in blog/news land.  I found this article on Neowin.net called “Million Dollar Man (Almost At A Million).”   It’s about a student who sells advertising on a website.  Sounds pretty basic, huh?  Well, not this site.  Alex Tew sells advertising by the pixel…all on one page.  Here is an exerpt from the Neowin post:

Run by 21 year-old Alex Tew, a university student from the UK, the homepage offers viewers the chance to purchase a pixel for $1. The site’s relative novelty appears to be the main cause of its success - quantified at a staggering 25,000 hits per hour - and highlights yet another unique advertising / marketing mechanism found online. Alex told Reuters news agency that he’d not done much with the money, but had treated himself to a new car. ” I’ve only just passed my driving test so I’ve bought myself a little black mini”.

View:  The Million Dollar Homepage - Own a piece of internet history!

Found this on Activewin: My Tucson friends will appreciate me posting this one…apparently Channing Frye will be playing on Xbox Live tonight. For those of you who don’t know, Frye played for the University of Arizona basketball team, and is now in the NBA playing for the New York Knicks. Here is an exerpt from the article:

Rookie center for the New York Knicks, Channing Frye, is stepping off the hardwood to bring his talents to Xbox Live®. Fans that are interested in going one-on-one with Frye will need to keep an eye out for the Xbox Live gamertag ‘ChanFryeGWF’ on Thursday, December 22 from 6:15 PM to 7:15 PM ET to challenge him in NBA Live 06® for Xbox®. “It has always been my dream to play in the NBA and now that I have my name and likeness in a video game it is a little overwhelming,” said Frye. “The Knick fans have been great and we are really building something special, so I can’t wait to grab the Xbox Live headset and get to know some of the fans. They just better take it strong to the hole, because I’ll be waiting to reject any weak stuff. ”

Link: ChanningFrye.com