I will say, that recently, after attending SxSW, I figured out the value of Twitter. Before arriving in Austin, I cleaned out my friends list, and now only follow people I know, especially those that attended SxSW. This made it easy to figure out where people were, and how to meet up with them. So, it's no longer a mystery to me, however, I still don't spend much time with it either.

Anyway, this is a very entertaining podcast. These guys give great commentary on current affairs from around the globe that you may not have heard about. They like to discuss what's going on in Hollywood, and also, my personal favorite, "What's on Craigslist?". And can I ask, if you wouldn't mind terribly, can you possibly, maybe remove that and sort of expose the twins for me?

So, if you're in the mood for something funny, and have grown tired of listening to music, give this podcast a shot. Plus, it's free, and there are currently 143 episodes to satisfy your comedic hunger.

At immediate glance, there doesn't seem to be too much wrong with this site.

What are your thoughts now?

Warning! You won't see this unless you scroll to the bottom.

If you are going to have a warning message that's this important, why are you putting it at the bottom of the page, after the fold (1024 x 768)?

• Reason for first visit: The hard drive couldn't be found.
• Solution: Entirely new MacBook
• Reason for second visit: OS wouldn't boot
• Solution: Archive and install
• Reason for third and most recent visit: Initially lost my iPhoto Library, and after some self-tinkering, OS wouldn't boot. Please know that the tinkering I had done in no way possible should have resulted in this sort of problem.
• Solution: Back-up user files, archive and install, create new user & copy old files to new user directories.

I purchased this computer in August of 2008. That's 3 visits to the Apple store in 9 months. Not good. After my most recent visit, my wife said something with which I couldn't disagree. She said "Apple is so arrogant." She's right. They have been touting their superiority over PC for quite a while now, however, I've had 3 too many problems with my very first Mac. So, to all the fanboys out there, let me let you in on a little secret. Apple is not perfect.

UPDATE (8/26/2008) 4 Times!!! This time I got an entirely new hard drive.

• Office!? We don't need no stinking Office! For those non-windows users out there (which now includes me), you won't need MS Office anymore. Google Docs allows you to create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. You don't have to download any software either.
• You've been saved. Any document, spreadsheet, or presentation you create is automatically saved. Any changes you make get saved as well without ever having to hit the save button.
• It's polite to share. You can share any document/spreadsheet/presentation with anyone. This is extremely valuable when you are not the only one working on the document.
• Let's talk about this for second. If the person/people you are sharing this document with are viewing it at the same time, you can chat with them in real time about the document. This comes in very handy when making changes that will need to be agreed upon. I honestly didn't think this feature would be too valuable until I used it. It's especially valuable when you are working with spreadsheets. Being able to tell someone to look at Cell 'C16' in the very same window that contains the spreadsheet proves very useful.
• They're Everywhere! If you were working on a document using your work computer and couldn't finish up, there is no need to worry. When you go home, all you have to do is get on your computer and there it is, in your Google Docs repository, just waiting for you to finish working on it.

So if you're a Mac user, or if you like having more freedom with your documents, I highly recommend using Google Docs to manage all you documents. I promise, you won't be disappointed.

Thanks to a great article by Paul Stamatiou, and some research I did on tons of other sites, I was able to find some really great applications. Here is a list of some of applications I've downloaded since last week:

• Adium A chat program that allows you to use your AIM, MSN IM, yahoo IM, Google IM and much more all in one slick application. It also comes with a cool little software package called "Growl", which is a notification system that can be used with many other software apps.
• Cyberduck A great FTP application that integrates nicely with many file editors, including TextWrangler.
• Quicksilver This application is SWEET. Talk about Getting Things Done. This application makes doing anything on your Mac a piece of cake. I can't do it justice, but a ton of other people have already tried, so I'll let you take t heir word for it.
• Twitteri fic Clever little app that lets you send twits, and receive the latest twits from all your friends.
• TextWrangler Relatively simple text editor that does just what I need it to do when I'm writing any PHP, xhtml, or CSS code.
• Firefox This should come as no surprise to anyone. Great browser.
• mySQL Although somewhat of a PITA to install and get working, this is a great free database software that allows me to create sample databases for all my projects.
• CocoaMySQL This is nice GUI front-end for mySQL. It allows you to connect to a database, and via a GUI, easily run queries and manipulate data however you see fit.

I've only had my Mac for about a week now, so I'm still getting accustomed to it. However, I am enjoying every minute of it, and can't wait to learn more! If you have any suggestions as to other applications I should be using, I'd love to hear from you.

There are currently 21 episodes of which you can listen. The first 18 are referred to as the Garrett Murray podcast (hence the URL). The reason for the change, is because Garrett is always joined by his friend Shawn Morrision, and they decided it'd make sense to change the name. Both of these guys are very funny, run-of-the-mill kinda guys who work well together.

So, I highly recommend having a listen. You won't be disappointed.

This morning's GMA was not the first time Google has been genericized. Pontiac had a car commercial that urged their customers to "Google Pontiac" (see video clip), while in the movie "The Holiday", Cameron Diaz goes to Google to find her perfect vacation getaway. You never hear people saying "Yahoo to find your answer", or "MSN it".

Congratulations Google! You've truely made a name for yourselves.

It's weird to think that there will be no more new books to read from him. So long Mr. Vonnegut. So it goes.

Do people really care what other people are doing? Why would I waste my time typing out a message explaining what I'm doing?

What's the deal with twitter?

UPDATE (04.27.07): Okay... So I signed up for twitter to see what the deal was. ummm... and ummm... I must ummm... admit, I'm addicted, and I can't even explain why. So, I guess the question in the title of this post is still legit: What's the deal with Twitter? I've been converted www.twitter.com/trick lin