BSU New Helmet Logo

The Broncos (#3 AP) will take on the Virginia Tech Hokies (#10) in a battle for potential BCS/College Football National Championship implications. The game is on Labor Day (Monday, September 6th) @ 8:00PM (EST). It will be televised on ESPN and ESPN HD.

Let’s Go Blue! Bronco Nation will be in full-effect!

Update: The day after this post, the announcement was made regarding the new uniforms. View the new the entire uniform here, at the Nike Combat website:

BSU New Uniforms

The countdown has begun! To all fellow online gamers, I look forward to meeting you in the virtual combat world. I play on Xbox Live under the Gamertag: II FIGJAM II. Send me an invite, for the most anticipated release of 2009 – Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 (CD MW2). The new game will support host migration, and give gamers the ability to throw their combat blade, as well as to control an A-C130 Gun Ship. Are you serious? C’mon! Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is going to be insane! I hope to see you all there … online that is.

mw2_300×250

Rest in peace stud. Opposition to Vietnam, breaking down on air via the JFK assasination, the Watergate scandal … television hall of fame. A class act and sailor, he will truly be missed. He was, Television News.

Image via Wikipedia

The new Microsoft search engine Bing is gaining ground on search engine giant, Google. The news regarding such a historic feat has been well documented. In fact, bing’s popularity may have overshadowed a more important and stunning announcement.

Make sure you’re seated. Ready? Microsoft will allow free access to Microsoft Office 2010. That’s right, the king of paid software (Microsoft) will give away Office 2010. FOR FREE! That in and of itself is amazing.

The software suite will come as both a piece of software you can buy for your computer, and as a service you can access in your browser. According to Microsoft, Office 2010 will be compatible with Safari, Firefox, and Internet Explorer.

Now, this is epic. With the introduction of bing and now a free online document suite, Microsoft may actually be waking up from its capitalistic coma. My take? This could be a new marketing tactic to cater to the younger generation who seems to be in favor of open source applications.  Regardless, professionals and students should be estatic regarding the annoucement.

I personally love my Office 2007 Suite and use it often. 2010 should be even better, especially now that it’s free! Did I mention that Microsoft is poised to give away some software for free?

Now, a real life comparison:

Hope you had a smile or “laugh” (in this case). Seriously, the things that keep me up at night!

It differs from Engadget or Gizmodo by aspiring to be a gadget-oriented social network. Users of the site can create profiles and specify which consumer electronics devices they have, had or want to buy. Then they can talk about those devices with other owners, discuss new trends and tips, and decide how and when to replace them.

Being a self-proclaimed geek, I think such site fulfills a void in the tech world.  It is a new social networking gadget utopia where ideas can and will be traded from geeks around the globe. The possibilities are endless. One potential use? What better way to brag about the electronics you own. I can see it now … “My home theater is bigger than your home theater.” … “Yeah, well I have a better receiver and HDTV.” … “My home theater is BIGGER than your home theater.”

Another, Key Use?

Well, hopefully, we (as consumers) will no longer waste countless hours searching review sites (e.g., cnet.com) in order to form a definitive decision when buying an electronic device. The hope with GDGT is that we could simply look at discussions regarding a specific device and/or become friends with an owner or product manufacturer. I mean, no offense to Best Buy or Walmart, but you’d have to be a few inches short of a yard to believe their customer service reps. Sure some owner’s on the new site will be biased, but I’m confident that after some maturation these users will be weeded out by way of giving bad advice to his/her amigos.

My take? Well, after the preliminary bombardment of www.gdgt.com by techies around the world, I was finally able to log on and start my profile.  You can find me under the username, “Kutichan“.  I have to say that I am really impressed by the site design, ease of navigation, and thought that went into the total development of this site.

The Bottom Line?

Although the world really doesn’t need another social networking site or anymore emo kids taking daily pictures in mirrors, GDGT is a welcomed addition to any geek’s electronic arsenal.  It’s about time to replace that Myspace page anyway.

If you still don’t get what GDGT can do for you, click here for additional information. Don’t worry, no reading is involved. Just stare and listen.

The industry leading browser, Mozilla Firefox, is back with version 3.5. As of June 30th, 2009, FF (as it is otherwise coined) 3.5 is now available for download! If you aren’t familiar with other browsers and are still using Internet Explorer, it is definitely time to upgrade. What are you waiting for? Follow this link: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/

To not upgrade or switch browsers would be a terrible injustice to you and the entire browsing world! If Mozilla isn’t to your liking, give the browsers “Safari”, Opera, or Google’s “Chrome” a chance. With increased speeds and a plethora of features, you’ll certainly be glad you did.

What’s New With Version 3.5?

According to the folks at Mozilla, a whole lot:

Performance. Firefox 3.5 includes the powerful new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine, which delivers unprecedented performance with today’s complex Web applications. Firefox 3.5 is more than two times faster than Firefox 3 and ten times faster than Firefox 2.

Open Video and Audio. Enjoy video and audio content from within your browser, without the need for plugins. Video is a vital part of the modern Web, whether it’s used to communicate, educate, or entertain. Firefox 3.5 delivers the first native integration of audio and video directly into the browser. Now everyone can easily watch open format Ogg Theora videos.

Web developers can use these technologies to design pages that interact with video content in new and exciting ways, offering richer interactive experiences beyond controlling playback and volume.

Privacy Controls. Firefox 3.5 includes features designed to protect your privacy online and provide greater control over your personal data.

While using the new Private Browsing mode in Firefox 3.5, nothing you encounter on the Web will be stored from that moment on during your browsing session. Unique to Firefox 3.5, the new Forget this Site feature can remove every trace of a site from your browser. If you want to remove all private data or activity from the past few hours, Clear Recent History, another Firefox-only feature, gives you full control over what stays and what goes.

Location Aware Browsing. Location Aware Browsing saves you time by allowing websites to ask you where you are located. If you choose to share your location with a website, it can use that information to find nearby points of interest and return additional, useful data like maps of your area. It’s all optional – Firefox doesn’t share your location without your permission.

UPDATE: A day in and I am really loving version 3.5. No “hiccups” to report and I love the new features (listed above). Now, I only have to wait for the compatible themes and new add-ons.

Kirkland Beer

Okay, now I love Costco. Bulk goods, quality invoice, and great prices. However, I even must admit, I was a little thrown back by their newest endeavor – Kirkland Signature “Handcrafted” Beer.

I love micro brews … absolutely love them. A nice Samuel Adams Boston Lager, perhaps a Widmer Hefeweizen = Delicious. Each has its own unique flavor and finish.  And, all micro brews (like wine) pair extremely well with food. However, if you love beer as much as I do, you know that good taste comes at a price. It is not uncommon for one to pay upwards of 10.00 U.S.D. for a 6 pack of bottled micro brew. My question, when does price truly trump flavor?

The answer? All too often. There are a ton of over-hyped and over-priced beers on the market. It is hard to distinguish a good beer from a bad one. Consumers often overpay just for the name of a given beer. In my opinion, beer is like music. Sure, you could listen to a loop of the Top 40 on a radio station, but great music often lies with the unsigned and independent artists of the world. Beer, like music, is no exception.  Some small time breweries produce enormously successful beers.

Where does Kirkland Signature Beer fit into the mold?

This question is arguable and is dependent upon your palate. For the price, I think that this “Handcrafted” beer is a decent brew. It is not a “great” beer.  If you are familiar with beer flavor and classification, I would say that this brand fits right in between a typical American pilsner and lager (e.g., Coors, Budweiser, Miller Genuine, etc.) and a domestic micro brew (e.g., New Belgium, Deschutes).

I picked up a 24 pack when I saw that my local Costco was now carrying it. Though not overtly brimming with flavor, for the price one couldn’t complain. 24 bottled varieties for 18.00 U.S.D. Pale Ales, German Ales, Amber Ales, and a Hefeweizen. Not bad, not bad at all.

So the next time you’re at Costco and want to cut costs on alcohol consumption, give this brand a go. Kirkland Signature “Handcrafted” Beer is a better brew than traditional American icons. This is truly a case of getting more than what you actually pay for.  Suddenly, savoring a tasty beverage is a good thing in a down economy.

“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy” – Ben Franklin

But, what if there was some thing greater?  A search engine capable of not only answering your questions through the most probable answer in the form of link recommendations, but a search engine that answered anything, instantaneously without links?  What’s more, it is just not one answer, it is every answer that is humanly possible to answer. It exists. Welcome to the world of Stephen Wolfram.

Wolfram Alpha

What it is:

The (Stephen) Wolfram search engine is a “computational knowledge engine.” Simply put, it can answer the most complex questions in the world – within seconds.  Again, not only does it provide a single answer, but many.  This makes systematic knowledge immediately computable by anyone, regardless of intellect. The user enters a question or calculation (something today’s popular search engines cannot comprehend) and the search engine uses built-in, complex algorithms and data to compute answers.  But, I digress.

Just know that the Wolfram search engine is remarkable. I suggest you all check out the demo from its creator here.

It will revolutionize the search world as we know it.  It may even be bigger than Google, and that is not blasphemous.

Mark my words, the Wolfram computational search engine will be truly revolutionary for the NET and personal education.