On my hockey team’s website, we have a section for virtual trading cards. One of the wives of one of our players noticed this yesterday, and provided a picture for us to use on her husband’s card. It must be seen to be understood.

Extra points if you take a big gulp of milk before clicking the link - it will surely come out your nose.

During my practicum, I worked for a very good cause, Computers for Schools. They are an organization that takes donated computers from corporations, refurbishes them, and installs them in British Columbia elementary schools.

I just noticed this article stating that the B.C. government is going to do a one-time payment of $1,000,000 to boost Computer for Schools’ effort. Considering that they run off of $50,000 annually, this is very significant. Right on!

B: Pinky, are you pondering what I’m pondering?
P: I think so, Brain, but if they called them ‘Sad Meals’, kids wouldn’t buy them.

This guy wants to take over the world, and to be honest, I wouldn’t put it past him to succeed. If anything, it’s an entertaining read. I might take him up on his offer of a free $10.

I just happened across this older post at gapingvoid (I’ve been spending a lot of time there lately), and had to share it. Anyone that has ever worked for a company that sells anything (in other words, YOU) should be interested in what Hugh has to say here. Oh, and I love this one:

As any self-respecting Family Guy fan knows, there is a new show coming out by Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane called American Dad. The pilot is available online for download (20 Meg Windows Media file), although who knows how long that will continue to be the case.

After reading this, I’m even more sure that Steve is on the right track.

Chris sent me this link, and it’s pretty amazing! Use the anonymous login, and play 20 questions with a computer. You’ll be surprised how good it is. AI has come a long way - I’m impressed!

Just look at the image below, and tell me you don’t want one of these. I want one, BAD.

Two software packages that I highly recommend have been recently bought out by Google and Microsoft, respectively.

The first is Picasa which was bought by Google. My friend Chris introduced it to me, and I thank him for that. Picasa claims it is “the best home for your digital photographs”, and they’re right. Picasa sports a slick, intuitive interface that even Mac fans couldn’t knock, and allows you to easily do all the main things you would want to do with your photos. You can’t do serious photo editing, but for that you’d use Photoshop anyway, right? You can now get Picasa right off of Google’s main page, and I’m sure that in the future you can find it easily just by searching Google for “Picasa”.

The second is a utility called LookOut, which is a search tool for Outlook that Microsoft purchased. This is one of those acquisitions that is so obvious that you almost worry that it won’t happen. I’m glad it has. LookOut has some amazing indexing and search functionality built in - it’s sort of like having Google for your email (and it can index files on your hard drive as well). You can get LookOut here. Whoops! It looks like Microsoft isn’t going to be actively distributing LookOut, so they’ve removed the download link. Good thing you can still get it here. (That’s what I love about the web - you can always find something if you look hard enough!)

My personal take on this is that both Microsoft and Google are trying to play in each other’s back yards. Microsoft buys the tool that people are calling “Google for Outlook”, and with Microsoft Research recently showing off their image management solution (which looks very cool), Google goes and purchases the best available software package in that vein. I say, “Fight, Fight!!!”, particularly if it means more free cool stuff!

What would happen if you made it your mission to write down every single thought you had? Ask Lion Kimbro, a video game tester who did exactly that for three months. I don’t know why, but I find the idea of this fascinating. Maybe it’s because in some ways I see it linked to the productivity principles of David Allen, or maybe ’cause it’s just an incredibly geeky thing to do.

From the “Stuff I Swear I Invented First” category, comes the Discovery UV & Ozone Toothbrush Purifier. I’m telling myself it probably won’t sell.

I came across the link to this on All Things Christie, a very cool blog by a fellow Canadian!

Another invention I swear I had was the pillow cooler. Fran acquired one for me for Father’s Day with much difficulty, as apparently they don’t deliver to Canada directly. I swear by the thing - seriously. It kicks some serious pillow-cooling ass. Yes it’s gimmicky. But it works.

I hate having such a bad case of geek lust. Thanks, Chris.