I read a lot of blogs, mainly in the realms of general news headlines, technology, politics, sports, and comedy, along with the blogs of several of my friends and acquaintances. As the number of blogs I read increased, I found the need to save time by using an RSS reader to aggregate everything into one nice, neat package. I’ve tried several of them, but I like Bloglines because of its interface, browser integration, and the fact that it’s web-based (so I can read anywhere, even on my phone). That service has saved me time in a lot of cases, and it has allowed me to follow a wide range of topics more comprehensively, since I don’t feel like I need to visit a hundred web sites every day.
Because I tend to read so much online, and it’s pretty much all interesting to me, I thought I’d try what other blogs often call a “link dump.” Mainly this involves passing on favorite stories, articles, etc. from the various sites a blogger reads daily. Aaron Gleeman does it very well, usually every Friday. He reads a lot more than I do and comes up with far more interesting stuff, but I thought I’d give it a try myself. I’m not sure how often I’ll do it (or if I’ll have time to do it again at all), but here’s what I’ve been reading over the last day or two:
Sports
The Vote for Rory campaign fell tragically short, as Rory Fitzpatrick finished 23,000 votes shy of starting the NHL All-Star Game. I might have actually watched it, which is saying a lot, since I typically don’t care about the NHL until the last game of the Stanley Cup Finals.
The latest Hardball Times mailbag explains how to be a sabermetrician, and it doesn’t involve wielding a sword. Dave mentions a nice Excel tool that I found out about a while back, if you’re looking to automatically grab data from some online source. I’m sure he uses it for other things, but I actually use it primarily to grab THT’s stats.
Technology
I read far more about technology than I actually understand, and that kind of stuff pays off on days like yesterday, when Apple (finally) announced the iPhone. Right now it’s a Cingular exclusive, and if you ask me, it’s not worth the price just yet ($499 for 4GB storage, $599 for 8GB). Sure, it runs OS X and supports WiFi and Bluetooth, but it doesn’t have 3G speed for on-the-go browsing, and there’s no wireless iTunes syncing yet. You also can’t expand its memory, although if you have 4-8 gigs, you might not need to. The touchscreen design is nifty, but I’d still go with the 8525 if I were in the market for a smartphone.
Right now I have the Sony Ericsson w810i, which is a fantastic media player, uses the same EDGE speed that the iPhone does for browsing, and stores files pretty well, too. I have instant gmail access and Google Maps, thanks to third-party J2ME app support, so I still think my $99 phone is pretty sweet.
I learned today that, apparently, the fact that you can view porn on the Nintendo Wii is somehow newsworthy. In a move that ranks as sensationalist at best, Dallas network WFAA is astounded that Nintendo would allow such a thing. Of course, you can view porn over the internet on the computer, and the Wii packs in the Opera browser, giving it the same internet functionality as your regular old PC. Apparently it’s too much to ask from parents, who must now watch their kids both on the PC and on the game console. WFAA also didn’t mention the fact that parental controls are readily available for the console and browser, and browsing can be disabled completely. Techdirt supplies all those other important bits of info.
Comics
The Onion is a favorite read of mine, even though they’re sometimes not as tasteful with their satire as I’d like. My favorite new articles are about a university’s Indian dance groups and upper-class armed forces enlistment. The latter takes on a bit of a conservative (satirical) political tone, and here’s my thought on the real-life issue: the lower-class population of enlisted soldiers is real, but that doesn’t make me any more likely to serve, especially not now. As with many of articles at The Onion, there will be some coarse language to watch out for, and I don’t plan to keep including that disclaimer if I link there in the future.
jfwiii.net 