Mike's Thoughts

So, I was one of the people who was actually able to obtain a copy of the Windows 7 beta when it came out last Friday. Despite dead links, and delayed betas, I was able to get a copy up and running on my laptop. Stay tuned in the next day or so for my thoughts on the upcoming operating system… all I can say is WOW!

So, just a quick follow up to the issue that I was having with my PS3.

A few weeks ago, I received my PS3, back in working order. To my surprise, it was actually MY unit, and not some refurbished piece of junk.

So, as of right now, things are good. What’s more, I was invited to join the “Home” beta, so you’ll be seeing some posts about that sometime next week, after I get back to school (where I left my system ), and have a chance to download it and play around with it.

So I recently discovered the wonder that is tinyurl. If you have never heard of this service, allow me to elaborate. Think back to a time when you wanted to send a friend a link to a webpage, but the URL looked something like this:

http://www.microsoft.com/events/EventDetails.aspx?CMTYSvcSource=MSCOMMedia&Params=~CMTYDataSvcParams^~arg+Name%3d%22ID%22+Value%3d%221032340737%22%2f^~arg+Name%3d%22ProviderID%22+Value%3d%22A6B43178-497C-4225-BA42-DF595171F04C%22%2f^~arg+Name%3d%22lang%22+Value%3d%22en%22%2f^~arg+Name%3d%22cr%22+Value%3d%22US%22%2f^~sParams^~%2fsParams^~%2fCMTYDataSvcParams^

Kinda mind boggling and a bit annoying, right? Enter tinyurl. Tinyurl is a service that allows you to create a ridiculously short URL that redirects to some ridiculously long URL, for free. The URL can be randomly generated, or you can attempt to make your own. What’s more, the URLs supposidly don’t expire, so when your friend decides to hide out in a cave for three years, you have the comfort of knowing that when they return to civilization, your tinyurl will be there, waiting for them!

I made a tinyurl for the link above, and it came out something like this:

http://tinyurl.com/3vkaen

Now sure, that looks a little conspicuous, but if you really want to be sure where it goes, just stick “preview.” before tinyurl, and it will take you to the tinyurl site, where you will see the entire link that it will redirect you to. (In this example, http://preview.tinyurl.com/3vkaen)

Sound good? Now go make your own at http://tinyurl.com!

So I officially received my new Nikon D40 digital SLR camera today. Here’s the thing…I bought my LG Dare with the thought that I would consolidate my devices by carring around a camera and a cell phone all in one. Let me tell you, despite being a 3.2 megapixel camera, it’s still a really bad camera on a camera phone, and it just wasn’t cutting it.

So, I took the plunge and bought Nikon’s entry level SLR. It’s only a 6 megapixel camera, but it’s miles beyond anything I have ever used. For more information on it, check out this site.

Right now, I’ve take about 115 really bad photos! I mean come on, for an entry level SLR, this thing has a ton of features, and I’m just beginning to wrap my head around them all. However, I was able to come up with a few that I thought were ok, given that it was my first time out.

I have created another page on my actual web site where I will post pictures that I find interesting. To check it out, simply go to gallery.mikebruckner.com, or click on the link at the top of my blog, or at the top of my main site.

Check out this cool page that Google put together, which tracks the number of metals each country has won so far.

You can check it out here, of just look at it right here on my blog!