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Aardvark, a Social Search Engine

Sometimes you have questions.  But, sometimes you want them from an actual person and not from scouring 15 different websites to come up with a mediocre answer at best. Well, I have found the perfect website for you.

By now I’m sure you have heard of social networking, who hasn’t, right?  There is  Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, not to mention um-teen others, and now enter Aardvark.  Aardvark is what you might consider a social  search engine website and was acquired by Google.  Hmmm, what is Google most famous for?  You know you can’t go wrong with this.  I gave it a try and found it to be very helpful and very accurate.  For example, say you are visiting Orlando, Florida and want to find out where there are some good bars.  You simply ask the question and someone familiar with your particular question responds to you within a matter of a few minutes.

It’s pretty neat.  Give it a try!

Qatar World Cup Bid 2022

The nation of Qatar has placed a bid to host the Word Cup in 2022. Should Qatar clinch the bid it will be the first time the World Cup has ever been played in the Middle Eastern region.

The video above shows you the Al-Rayyan Stadium,  just 1 of the 5 proposed stadiums.  The current Al-Rayyan Stadium will be expanded from a seating capacity of 21,282 to just under 45,000 seats by creating an modular upper tier.

The entire outside of the stadium will be converted into what looks to be one gigantic multimedia surface.  Plainly put it’s going to be a 420,000 square foot monster television. I wouldn’t want to sit in the front row!

Received Phone Call From My Own Number

I had something very odd just happen. My cell phone was ringing on my desk in front of me. So, I grabbed the phone to answer it. When I looked at the display I was surprised to see I was receiving a phone call from myself!. Someone was calling me.. but they were using my phone number. No doubt it was probably a telemarketer or something along those lines, but, how strange is that?!

Have you ever had a similar experience?

What is your craziest phone experience?

Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida

One in six Americans are struggling with the reality of hunger and food insecurity. In these uncertain economic times people are finding themselves resorting to measures they never thought they would. Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida is a private, nonprofit organization that collects and distributes donated food to more than 600 nonprofit partner agencies in six Central Florida counties: Brevard, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Volusia. Learn more about how you can donate. You never know who you might be helping.

If you are in a position of being able to donate food or money please do.  So many families need your help.

Gmail: Graph Your Inbox

Google Chrome has a new extension called Graph Your Inbox. This nifty little gem was written by PhD candidate Bill Zeller. You simply install the extension into your Google Chrome browser, and voila, you can search all your Gmail for trends.

I’ve put Graph Your Inbox to the test and find it to be very interesting.  Although interesting, I’m not sure how useful of a tool this is for an individual.  However, a lot of companies are now migrating their in-house email (exchange and the like) to the cloud.  I can see how this might be a very useful for business tool.  Check it out for yourself!

Information Is Beautiful [video]

David McCandless makes infographics. He takes information that is too complex, too large, too small, too scattered, or too abstract and then visually displays the information in a manner that is easily grasped. This guy does a really great job of breaking information down and presenting it. He touches on everything from politics, climate, breakup patterns, you name it.

Check out this video to get a better idea of what he does. If you are compelled to dig a little deeper, he also has a book, The Visual Miscellaneum.

Google: Instant Search Results

And you thought Google provided instant search results before?  Well, now they are providing them even faster.  Today Google has unveiled something newer and faster. Today when you type a search query with Google, results appear after the first letter is entered, and they update as the user types. This new way of searching is what they have dubbed Google Instant.

Sometimes I ask myself, “Is Google making me stupider?” I suppose that is debatable.  That aside, Google is an amazing search engine and over all company.

MooTools, a Javascript Framework

Most everyone has or needs a website these days. If you are interested in building a website yourself MooTools can certainly speed along elements of your website. MooTools is a compact javascript framework intended for intermediate to advanced developers.  If you aren’t into programming or don’t like to work with a lot of code they provide a handful of useful demos to help get you on your way.  MooTools offers seamless cross-browser compatibility.  It is worth checking out!

Conan O’Brien on TBS Starting November 8th

As most of you know Conan O’Brien was ousted from the NBC network due to poor ratings after taking over the Tonight Show. His last “Tonight Show” on the Peacock network was on January 22nd, 2010.  Negotiations between Team Coco and the NBC network ended up paying out Coco and his staff roughly $45 million dollars (yes, that’s a 45 with 6 zeros following). $33 million dollars of the payout went to Conan O’Brien and the remainder was divied out to his crew.

Negotiations made also would not allow Conan to show is face on TV until September 1st. Well, guess what? Heeeee’s Baaack! Yesterday Conan made the official announcement that his new show named simply “Conan” will air on TBS starting on November 8th.

I for one am very much looking forward to having Conan back on the air.