Taps' Vox

I want to use Vox.  I really do.  But Vox won't work on Firefox when I have my adblock turned on.  So even this obituary must be written in Internet Exploder.

I do have a new blog - and I'd love some visitors.  Check out agoodspectator.blogspot.com.  It has an RSS feed, and an embedded widget with my link blog from Google Reader.  All in all, much more dynamic and interesting content than Vox would allow me to post.

I love the community-centric neighbourhoods on Vox, but I love adblock, Firefox and Google Reader more.

In the words of Rocco, from the Boondock Saints - "I'll catchya on tha flipside..."

I don't care what the weather says, today is the first day of Spring.

My reasoning?

• It SMELLS like Spring.
• I drove across the township with my windows down.
• All the songs my iPod chose were great.
• All the girls looked pretty.

Oh, and I have a new blog that I'm trying to update regularly.  If you're interested, visit: agoodspectator.blogspot.com

After listening to an interview with Sir Dyson (the vacuum cleaner guy) on The Hour, I felt compelled to MAKE something.  This is unusual, because I'm so very, completely unskilled, but I was definitely inspired to CREATE.

I'm quite pleased with the results.

Introducing the Low-Tech iPod Nano dock for car audio.

Net Neutrality is something I think is incredibly important.  However, it's a hard concept to explain.  This video does a nice job putting neutrality into perspective.  It is an easy-entry into the debate around the freedom of the internet.  Please watch it, re-post it and leave whatever comment you feel is important.

Save the Internet | Rock the Vote

My friend Chris has started his own business.  Black River Paddle Company is going to sell quality, handmade canoe paddles.  His website is pretty slick and his paddles are gorgeous.

I love the fact that he's rooted his company name in a sense of place.  The Black River runs beside Chris' family farm, and his paddles are a reflection of his childhood experiences on the river.

He's not taking orders just yet, but I'm definitely going to replace my current paddle with a Black River Paddle.

Former NBA Star Tim Hardaway made awful, hateful comments on a radio show last week.

As a response, George Takei (Star Trek's "Sulu") made a PSA Video.  It is hilarious.

Love the Flash Mobs.

I need 100 friends to conduct this very serious social experiment.

100 vs 1

Today I found out that ESPN, that big sports company in the sky, agrees with me.  ESPN now allows readers to comment on every story on their website (even the "wire" stories...associated press, Reuters, et al.).  It's called ESPN Conversations.

I love it.  The news stories become conversations.  They take on life and meaning as we (the public) add our two cents.

If you forgot my "vision for the web", here's a link to the original post.

I love the "reply" feature for news stories.  Now it's just a matter of time before e-mail and RSS seamlessly integrate.

I admit, at first Yahoo Pipes seemed interesting.  But it also seemed useless.

However, I've put together 3 pipes of my own, and I like the process.

Yahoo Pipes allows you (or me) to manipulate RSS feed results.  So far, I've only used it to troubleshoot.  That it, I use it to fix things I don't like about my current feeds.

Here they are.  Feel free to use these pipes for yourself.  You can also change them to suit your purpose, though you'll need a YahooID.

This one filters Fark results.  I now get nothing about Florida, photoshop contests, etc.
http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/plu9Yha92xGB_motdrq02Q/run?_render=rss

This one filters my Reuters News results.  Reuters was sending me 5 or 6 copies of every feed item.  This stops that problem.
http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/xOtfRBG92xGsKmWSIBeTaQ/run?_render=rss

This does the same "remove duplicates" for Toronto Raptors News.
http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/yiip_RG92xGoen2xFG_cUw/run?_render=rss

I got a new cell phone today.  My contract expired and I renewed with Bell Mobility here in Ontario.

Why Bell?  Well, why not?  Rogers gets no reception outside of Toronto and Telus' rate plans looked pretty brutal.  Bell offered me a poor selection of phones, but I found one I'm excited about.

The Nokia 6275i is pretty, slim and has a 2.0 MP digital camera that works nicely.  The phone is supposed to do many other wonderful things, but Bell has crippled it's capabilities to try to make me spend money on their ringtones and other crap.

I will likely post again about my workarounds for all the "limits", but I now have a working version of both the Opera Mini Browser and Google Reader.  Each had some special challenges, but I feel good having figured it all out.  Expect some fancy pictures soon.