I took a field trip with one of my daughters to the Brevard Zoo, as part of the 3rd grade field trip for this year.  Despite being a very hot Florida day, we saw some really cool animals and I was able to get some great shots. View Full Album

Every day I visit tons of website, forums, and social networks for all types of topics, most of which are technology based in some sort of form.  This election cycle has really brought out the best of the liberal “group think” mentality regarding Obama.  On just about every social network Obama is praised as “the one” and any hint of disagreement with his policies or ideals is immediately responded with accusations of racism, or just plain insults.  Anybody who wants to claim that...

If you spend any amount of time on the Internet then I would probably bet you have be subjected to some form of talk about social networks.  Heck, even here on WinCustomize and JoeUser I regularly talk about the usefulness of such networks.  We have a growing group on Facebook about desktop customization , and several of us use Twitter as well. With all these current networks, and more popping up all the time, it can be difficult to keep track of them all.  I use quite a few...

Since the political season is heating up even more, and politics is a hot topic on Twitter, we have created our own account for The Political Machine.  It will be regularly updated with links and comments about both the upcoming game, and articles on the PoliticalMachine.com website. There are also some great Twitter clients for both Windows and Mac. Witty Twhirl Visit our Twitter page and click follow to keep updated. The Politic...

I have used Flickr off and on for the last few months, and finally upgraded to a Pro account because it has become and invaluable way to share and organize my photos.  Recently I received a beta invite to Photophlow and have been trying it out for the last week or so. The concept is rather simple, but the developers are doing a fantastic job implementing it.  Basically Photophlow is a way for Flickr users to share in real-time their photos with other users.  This is done in ...

A few days ago Microsoft quietly launched a new translation service that is powered by Systran, which is a developer of language translation software. There wasn't much said about this service from Microsoft, and some users are reporting that not all the languages are working correctly.

While what he did was very stupid and inexcusable, over 2 years in jail for it is ridiculous.  The sad thing is he got more time for posting hateful messages than he did for having child porn on his computer.  "A man who posted racist messages on a website in memory of murdered black teenager Anthony Walker was jailed for more than three years today. Neil Martin, 30, emailed at least six comments to the website - less than a week after Anthony was killed with an ice axe in a ...

I have some betas for this now.  The first two people to request them will get them. You must have a hotmail account to use this.

Speculation abound late Monday regarding Google's oft-rumored plans to launch an instant messaging network that would compete with AOL, MSN and Yahoo. The New York Times reported that a Google communications service would launch Wednesday, and the LA Times confirmed it would go by the name "Google Talk." Although such rumors have long proliferated throughout the Internet and are usually taken with a grain of salt, Google has activatedtalk.google.com. In addition, a messaging service util...

I am downloading now, it looks interesting. Yahoo's online music strategy has finally taken shape after a year of development with the launch of the Yahoo! Music Engine, the company's challenger to iTunes and subscription services such as Napster. While it may be late to the party, Yahoo threatens to shake up the industry with prices 60 percent less than its rivals. Betanews link. Link

Microsoft has released the final version of MSN Messenger 7. Link

U.S. holiday shoppers continue to turn to the Internet when searching for presents for family and friends, according to data released Thursday by VeriSign. VeriSign provides network security and authentication services to about 120,000 online retailers. Those companies took in $8.8 billion in online spending during the period between the Thanksgiving holiday on Nov. 25 and the Monday after Christmas, Dec. 27. This was an increase of 24 percent compared to the same period last year, VeriS...

Picking up a hooker in your work van.... see more Epic Fails Bustin' a cap in your homie..... Practicing your sword fighting skills...... Slangin' dope on the corner..... And lastly, stalking girls at the beach......

This is our Christmas Tree for this year.  It’s around a 6-7ft. Fraser Fir.  The lights are LED, with various ornaments.

Google Knol, which looks like it could be a direct competitor to Wikipedia opened for users yesterday.  Knol is "authoritve" articles which emphasize authorship.  The point behind this is you know who is writing the content.  Wikipedia has fallen under criticism for users being able to manipulate articles without leaving much of a papertrail.  Knol seems to seek to avoid these kind of issues. Another feature is called "moderated collaboration" where a user can accept, reje...