Michael R. Beck - Web 2.0's Average Joe

Did Osgood Get What He Deserved from Ribeiro?

2008-05-11T18:02:00.004-04:00

Take a look at this video from Game 2 of the 2008 Western Conference Finals on May 10, 2008. Watch closely as Chris Osgood's arm jerks when Mike Ribeiro passes by. That jerking was Osgood's stick getting closer to Mike Ribeiro, and making contact with him.

Does this justify a slash in the chest over the net? Those on the Dallas side of the fence might say that Chris Osgood is in the wrong. He poked the wasps' nest and had it coming. But I want you to take a good look at Osgood's stick when it makes contact with Ribiero. It rattles pretty good in his hand, meaning he didn't have a very tight grip on it. (Speaking of poking the wasps' nest, what was Ribeiro doing so close to the Red Wings' net with less than a second to go in the first place?)

I understand that frustrations are running high. You and your team just lost a close game, and now you're down in that ugly 2-0 hole. You're heading back home to Dallas and will split games 3 and 4 (if you're lucky), only to come back to Detroit to lose in Game 5.

Now, with the game decided, the Red Wings goaltender appears to take a small shot at you as you skated by.

What do you do? You snap. You swing your stick at that goaltender and send a message.

What do you do next? You sit for Game 3, at least.

Let's not forget another goaltender that was on the ice and what he did during the game. He blatantly pushed his stick out and pulled the skates right from underneath a player. That was Marty Turco. Why didn't Valtteri Filppula get up and give Turco a mighty slash? Probably because he realizes he has another series to play, while Turco has tee times in a couple weeks.

Bottom line: Whatever contact occurred between Osgood and Ribeiro at the end of the game, a two-handed slash was not justified.

Remember When: The Red Green Show

2008-05-11T16:08:00.002-04:00

I can remember watching the Red Green show on CBC as teenager here in the Metro Detroit area. Anyone living in Canada or Michigan definitely got the "yooper" style comedy. (A "Yooper" is the term we Michiganders affectionately give to people who live in the Upper Penninsula of our state.)

The clip pretty much tells you everything you need to know about the show.

$795 or $19.95, which Font Highway is better to travel?

2008-05-10T10:54:00.003-04:00

Stumbled across a website, clearviewhwy.com, which touts a font named, you guessed it, ClearviewHwy. (Now you see why the marketers get paid the big bucks when choosing domain names!)

According to their website, ClearviewHwy is the first federally approved road guide sign font system. Good for them.

Call me cheap, but I'm not going to fork out nearly $800 bucks to a company as a reward for jumping through some federal red tape, when I can a nearly identical font that was designed in 1963 for $19.95.

Don't believe me? See for yourself.
Click here for the Transport font, and then change the sample text to ClearviewHwy.
Then click here to see the ClearviewHwy font layout.

Are there differences between the fonts? You bet. $775 worth of difference? Not a chance.

Note: I am not affiliated with MyFonts.com, in fact I didn't even know they existed until I did a Google search while writing this blog entry.
Sign above made with Kurumi's Sign Maker 2.3.1

rmbrme bcuz im un4gettble

2008-05-08T12:27:00.002-04:00

I wrote this comment in response to a review "rmbrME" that I read on Download Squad. The service is designed to make it easier to send your social networking contact information to individuals on their cell phones, for 49 cents a whack.

I wanted to share this comment with you here on my blog as well.

Reminds me of another paid service that recently cropped up, that supposedly made it easier to find out where your friends were at... for a fee.

When services like these pop up, I always wonder... are these companies solving a problem that actually exists? Or trying to have a problem solved before its even created?

Well if anyone has a ton of VC to throw out there, I have an idea for a business for people who are too shy to text someone they just met. You text the service and it will contact your intended recipient with a note that says, "Do you like John Smith? Please reply with yes or no." If the person replies with a "yes", you will be informed and can initiate normal texting. If the reply is negative, the service will inform you as gently as possible.

Collin, the Super Child Genius

2008-05-08T09:56:00.005-04:00

Not a day goes by where I am not completely blown away by how incredibly intelligent my son is. He started reading by the time he was 2 just like I did, and now I can see his reading and writing ability has surpassed what mine was at age 4.

At just 4 years old he can pick up any grade level book and read it, and not just read it aloud but actually comprehend what he is reading.

Not only can Collin read, but he can spell too. I let him play with my phone from time to time, and one of the ways he picked up spelling is through the "auto-complete" feature that most texting phones have. This is the feature where you punch in the first few letters and it gives you a row of words that match so you can select one without having to spell out the entire word.

He'd get on my phone and send text messages to his mom and a few of my friends, and they'd be nothing but long lists of words he picked out.

He has come a long way since then, and now he can actually type to you what's on his mind.

The Nintendo Wii gives you the ability to send e-mail, and I like the fact that you have to register addresses before they are able to send you messages. This is perfect for my son, whom I want to introduce to the world of e-mail without having to subject him to advertisements for natural male enhancement from Darren Rowse's imposter.

Well last night when I got home late, I found this in my Gmail inbox:

I have never received a better e-mail in my life.

Let's have a chat, shall we?

2008-05-06T22:35:00.004-04:00

If you look on the left hand side of my michaelrbeck.com site, you'll notice I have a "Chat with Michael Beck" link. If I'm online, feel free to say hello and ask any questions you may have.

If you already have Google Talk, feel free to add mrbeck@gmail.com so I can know who you are as well! (Unless you really like being known simply as "guest")

Father of the Year

2008-05-05T23:30:00.002-04:00

My 4-year-old son Collin bowls the game of his life, a 219, and I crack him over the head with a 300 game. Man I'm such an awesome dad.

At least I didn't get up and ride the bull. I reserve that for when I beat my buddy Matt by 2 pins.

The Dude Cleans Up Nice

2008-05-05T23:25:00.004-04:00

Well, maybe not. But at least I gave it the ol' college try. I think I'm going to grow my beard back that way people can actually tell I have a jaw.

Wii Bowling: 2nd Perfect Game in Two Nights

2008-05-05T22:59:00.003-04:00

I found my pocket. I found that sweet spot where I can do no wrong. I am the greatest Wii Bowler on the face of the planet. It's just a game and I don't care. Don't steal my glory, punk.

7th Grade Geek Love

2008-05-05T13:01:00.002-04:00

Back in the day BASIC programming was all the rage, with "the day" being circa 1990. It's been a long time since I've played with BASIC, but I got to thinking about it today through a very obscure thought process.

While talking about music today to the very lovely woman I'm seeing, I mentioned making her a "mix tape" and how that would be "so 7th grade".

But what was I doing in 7th grade when I liked somebody? While others were making mix tapes, or passing notes around that said "Do you like me? Yes/No - Circle One", I was printing off little professions of love on perforated printer paper like this one I just wrote for the before-mentioned lady in my life:

10 DESTINEY = BEAUTIFUL
20 DESTINEY = SWEET
25 DESTINEY = FUN
30 WHILE DESTINEY = HAPPY
40 MIKE = HAPPY + LUCKY
50 WEND

For the ever curious minds out there, all it will do if you copy and paste it into qBASIC is lock up your computer... but it is a "working" program.

The beautiful thing about "love notes" in BASIC is you can show your geeky side and still be understood. Isn't that wonderful?

Photo by kumar303

The Winning Hairstyle...

2008-05-02T10:47:00.002-04:00

After receiving suggestions via e-mail, MySpace, and this blog, I have decided upon the hairstyle I will get this afternoon.

Why am I posting this picture and not just a picture of my haircut after I get it done? Safety net. If I'm making a mistake, someone out there has roughly 4 1/2 hours to make an impassioned plea for me to have something else done to my head.

Start the clock... now.

The Makeover is Half Complete

2008-05-01T21:48:00.001-04:00

The man shaved the bulk of his beard. It's a miracle.

The haircut is next. How are we doing so far?

Sometimes I forget he's only four...

2008-05-01T20:45:00.003-04:00

My son is so extremely intelligent for his age that sometimes I forget that he's only four. Tonight while I was in a vulnerable position in the bathroom, I asked Collin to go downstairs and get me some toilet paper. He came back up with three sheets.

He did exactly what I asked. I should have asked for a roll instead of "some".

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Merelymel13

Reading Trends Time Again

2008-04-29T23:04:00.002-04:00

Off the wall statistics always interest me, and the "Trends" link on Google Reader has me hooked.

Since you clearly can't get enough of all things "Michael Beck", it's time to let you in a little deeper into my head by way of what I read on the Internet.

Mashable has been the number one blog I've read over the past 30 days, as I love all things Web 2.0. But like many folks on the Internet, I attack tech blogs with the "what's in it for me" approach. With Mashable, most of the articles I read have to do with new launches that offer free services that would benefit me. They only nail me 20% of the time.

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of the Nintendo Wii, and my tastes are very specific: Virtual Console games (the old school NES/SNES stuff) and anything to do with hockey games and Mario Kart. With Nintendo Wii Fanboy, Nearly 1 out of every 4 articles tickles my fancy.

Wired bombards my reader with a plethora of subjects, 84% of which I could care less about. But I do find more articles of interest with Wired than I do with BoingBoing.

Lifehacker is good for republishing articles I just read in another blog, but once in a while they link me to something I haven't read yet, or heck, they even come up with original content from time to time. They get me to read 18% of the time. With Lifehacker you don't get a full RSS feed, so if you want to continue reading an article you have to click through to the site. I click through probably 5% of the time.

Download Squad is where I pick up most of my Windows XP news, as well as tips on cool software and a nifty new start up site here and there.

I find what Robert Scoble shares in his Google Reader as interesting as Mashable or Download Squad, and so much so that it actually ranks #6 in my Google Reader trends. (Keep up the sharing, Robert, I really enjoy it!)

Darren Rowse over at Problogger.net always has interesting blogging tips to share, which I am very religious in reading (I read nearly half of the articles that come my way from Problogger) . Now if I could just be as thorough in applying the tips and techniques, perhaps I'd have a bigger subscriber base.

Clark Howard is a radio personality in Atlanta, Georgia that teaches his listeners on how to be better consumers by saving money, finding bargains, and avoiding getting ripped off. I subscribe to his feed and read his "Websites mentioned" post each day as you never know when you might find a cool new product or service before the rest of the world does. I learned about the "Virgin Webplayer" and "Virgin Connect" service through Clark Howard. (Still bummed that thing went under so fast - I really liked it!)

Digital Inspiration is a blog I've picked up on recently and discovered they have a lot of great tips for using Google services, for example. They also publish some off-the-wall humor stuff like the piece they did on the company selling pillows embroidered with DOS directories.

Last, but not least, is Rhi in Pink, a blog that follows the daily life of Rhi, a 29 year old woman living in Portland, Oregon. Her writing style is a mixture of Carrie from Sex in the City (without the Sex, if that makes sense), Kevin Nealon as "Mr. Subliminal", and a conversation you'd have with your best female friend home from college after you haven't seen her in a few years and she has absolutely fabulous stories to tell you. Am I hooked? I've read every blog post she has put out in the last 30 days: the only blog scoring 100% in my top ten.

Writing for Kids Isn't Child's Play

2008-04-23T22:50:00.004-04:00

I started playing with one of my lightly used domains tonight: Goobaga.com. Goobaga was supposed to be a cool sounding and brandable name that I could use for a blog, a product, or anything else that tickled my fancy.

Today Goobaga has become a repository for bedtime stories that I am going to start writing for my four year old son, Collin.

You'd think writing for a kid could be the easiest thing in the world. You'd be half right. While it's easy to dumb down any English sentence, how do you do it in a way that keeps the child's interest?

In "Mario Meets the Princess", I was faced with multiple lines of dialogue between Mario and the Princess. In an "adult" story, you break up the back-and-forth monotony by cracking out a thesaurus for use with your verbs, and interjecting descriptions of demeanor, environment, and ambiance. With a children's story, if you pull that out you'll confuse them to the point where they'll forget what the two characters are talking about.

In "Mario Saves the Toadstool People", I didn't have to spend any time introducing characters since it was already someone my son knew very well: Mario. This allowed me to jump right into the action. One minute Mario's fixing a clogged pipe, the next minute he's kicking turtle shells and listening to Toadstool people sing.

The common goal between writing for adults and writing for children is keeping the reader's attention.

With adults this is done by answering the "what happens next" question with enough interesting detail to paint a clear picture of the situation at hand and engage the reader to ask the same question again.

With children this is accomplished by answering the question quickly and simply with enough action to have them turn the page and have the "what happens next" question answered before they even have a chance to ask.

Boy do I need practice at that.

Mario, Goomba, and Paratroopa are trademarked and copyrighted images of Nintendo.

Someone please fix my head

2008-04-22T19:20:00.004-04:00

It's haircut time again and in reflection, my last two haircuts have been colossal failures. I have not cared for the last two months and just went with "whatever", and "whatever" hasn't gotten me any positive attention during that time.

But the last two haircuts is just part of a long history of bad haircuts, as this video from August 8, 2006 demonstrates.

It has gotten to the point where if I don't put any sort of product in my hair (namely pomade) then I end up looking like Moe from the Three Stooges with a beard. It's horrible, and I need to come out of the gate with a good look this time around.

So now I turn the keys to the hair on my fat head over to you. I need image links, drawings, or whatever you can find that demonstrate which is the best haircut for me and why.

A Woman's Five Secrets for a Perfect Relationship

2008-04-21T13:01:00.002-04:00

1. It's important to have a man who helps at home, who cooks from time to time, cleans up and has a job.

2. It's important to have a man who can make you laugh.

3. It's important to have a man who you can trust and who doesn't lie to you.

4. It's important to have a man who is good in bed and who likes to be with you.

5. It's very, very important that these four men don't know each other!

(This was forwarded to me in my e-mail today.)

Photo by Flickr user nattu

August 13, 2006: Traffic in Michigan

2008-04-18T00:10:00.005-04:00

A year and a half ago I was pretty hot around the collar about traffic and road construction around metro Detroit. Even if you could care less about what I have to say, I have to admit the Sopranos spoof intro was pretty cool at the time.

Click to enlarge

Above you'll see the I-75/M-59 interchange I mentioned in the video. You had better know where you're going and know the exit is coming well in advance or else you're not hitting your exit on the first pass.

What blogs am I reading these days?

2008-04-17T22:50:00.001-04:00

I actually clicked on an Internet advertisement...

2008-04-17T20:13:00.004-04:00

I've been surfing the web since 1995, and if there's one thing I've gotten good at on the Internet in the past 13 years, it's how to put on blinders and ignore Internet advertising.

I can't tell you how many times I've been the "1,000,000th" visitor to a website and "eligible" for a prize, or how many chances I've had to win a ringtone, or get a free Xbox, or sign up for the "Money Tree", get free online storage for my music, and a bazillion other gimmicks. I learned how to not click on any of them.

Today I saw an advertisement that set me back on my heels a little.

"Parents Against Reprehensible Metal Music"? What the hell is that? I was pretty sure it was a joke, but there was no tip off as to who this was actually advertising for. The more I stared at that scowling woman and that goofy book with the crazy "No to Guitars" logo on it, the more I had to click. I was no match for this particular marketing ploy, and with a nervous twitch and a slow cursor, I crept over to the forbidden advertising box and... clicked.

My reward was a flash-laden website for the all new Toyota Matrix and I was invited to discover my "other me". I didn't spend but 30 seconds looking at the site before I "X'd" out the tab, but if their goal was to at least get me to take a peek, then mission accomplished.

Web 3.0: F@#K you. It's all for me.

2008-04-17T18:19:00.003-04:00

While browsing through my newsreader this evening, I came across this video from 1938media. Loren Feldman makes it very simple to grasp: If you like him, great. If you don't, that's too bad.

Maybe he's on to something here. Could this be the start of a new attitude or movement? Could this be... Web 3.0?

Damn it, I don't have the balls to be that mean. I agree with Loren Feldman: he'll do his thing, I'll do mine.

Hockeytown is all a "Twitter"

2008-04-17T00:19:00.004-04:00

The night started with such promise for the Detroit Red Wings in game 4 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Nashville Predators, but then the unthinkable happened. I had to use the bathroom in the middle of play. (What, you thought I was going to say Nashville scored 2 goals in record time was unthinkable? Already happened twice in the series before game 4!)

I was gone for 3 minutes and when I came back to the television, the Detroit Red Wings were down 2-0 in the 1st period.

Fans were not thrilled in Hockeytown, and we took our frustrations to Twitter. Of course there were some Nashville fans there to cheer on their hard working boys from Tennessee as well.

Here's what the conversation looked like from the time Detroit scored to make the game 2-1, on their way to an eventual 3-2 loss:
(@hoopadoo is yours truly.)

@mediaphyter Boo, Detroit is on the board Link
@mediaphyter Ooh, what's that Red Wings? That's a spank. Nashville scores, 3-1. Link
@julzroguenine Osgood, please? Link
@julzroguenine Thank goodness, Dom's out! Link
@hoopadoo All I can say is about the tit for tat I just saw is haaaaaa haaaaaa take a hike old man Hasek Link
@pburleson Whoa Hasek just got pulled. That seemed kinda harsh, he had no chance. Link
@sigsegfalt YES! HASEK IS OUT! OZZIE IS IN! Link
@MissTrade @ hoopadoo even hasek is older than me @ 41 Link
@hoopadoo I hope Osgood starts the rest of the series too. I was done with Hasek after last year. Link
@dcweyh I'd trade both the Pistons and Tigers wins for a Wings win Link
@MaggieConv wtf is going on with detroit tonight?! bout time they put Ozzie in net. Link
@hoopadoo Why can't the Wings score 2 goals in 10 seconds? Oh that's right, Hasek plays for US. Link
@julzroguenine WTF? Draper was the only one who got a penalty? *grr* Link
@hoopadoo Oh man, Osgood had BETTER start game 5, he looks better in 4 minutes than Hasek has in 4 games... Link
@motownmutt @ mediaphyter Darn it, quit rooting against the good guys. Home ice is over-rated. Link
@julzroguenine Osgood keeping us in this game. Why oh why didn't he start tonight? Link
@sigsegfalt Osgood hasn't played in two weeks, and looks better than Hasek has all year. Link
@mediaphyter @ motownmutt Sorry Charlie. :) Link
@hoopadoo Oh, Osgood... We missed you. Thanks for bailing out Hasbeen. Link
@julzroguenine @ hoopadoo Amen to that! Link
@hoopadoo Why do the Red Wings make opposing goalies look so good in the playoffs? Link
@TheFitB Could the Red Wings be on the verge of another disappointing playoff run? Link
@GoodForm Defensive shell for the Predators Link
@hoopadoo @ TheFitB Well, remember we went into game 5 with a 2-2 series tie against Nashville back in '04. Wings won in 6. Link
@MichaelBeaton Bed Time . . night all . . . hope the wings can pull this out! Link
@TheFitB I forgot about that @ hoopadoo that was a rarity. Much respect for them even though I'm a Leafs fan Link
@dcweyh wings score 2-3 Link
@hoopadoo Yeah! Yeah! Goal Wings! Note to Ken Holland. Osgood, yay. Hasek, boo. Link
@motownmutt Red Wings w00t! 2, un-w00t 3 Link
@hoopadoo Ohhhhhh I thought the Wings game was about to be tied! Link
@sigsegfalt Datsyuk's gonna have to win this one on his own. Link
@MissTrade Wings in pred zone about 90 percent this peiod making ozzie seem good Link
@hoopadoo That was a bad whistle in the Wings game, puck wasn't controlled by Osgood. Link
@MissTrade Not complaining about whistle take what they give us Link
@TheFitB @ hoopadoo puck not controlled by Osgood is an understatement. Sitting in front of a wide open net and the whistle goes off??? Link
@hoopadoo @ MissTrade I don't want the refs to decide the game, that's all. Link
@hoopadoo @ TheFitB The ref will just tell you he "lost sight of the puck." Unreal. Link
@hoopadoo Datsyuk, the magic man? What happened to Shake'n'Bake? Link
@MissTrade Wings in 7 Link
@davidjhinson C'mon. 2.3 seconds. Hold on! Link
@julzroguenine And I can't believe I stayed up late for that... Gonna need lots of caffeine tomorrow... Link
@hoopadoo Hasek should be first star of the game... For Nashville.... Link
@davidjhinson Hot Damn! Preds Win! Link
@TheFitB Wow! Nashville ties the series with the Wings Link
@MaggieConv WTH there is no reason why Nashville should win ANY games vs detroit..but yet..they win another one. sad. Link
@bccarlso @ hoopadoo Haasek... haasek... you suck! OK, but seriously Z boy coulda scored a couple too. Link
@hoopadoo @ bccarlso I 'm out of angry things to say about Hasek. Link

Photo by Flickr user Dan4th

"In this corner we have the Senator from Illinois..."

2008-04-16T14:05:00.004-04:00

Click on the image above for an enlarged view.

So this is what it takes to get today's youth involved in politics: A bloody battle to the death, brought to you by the repeated smashing of your mouse button, and the allure of collecting $50,000 (like that will happen).

Xbox meets K-Street, anybody?

You Need a New Shirt (And Can Help a Cause While You're at it)

2008-04-15T20:13:00.004-04:00

I opened my e-mail inbox and found some good news this evening: my friend and fellow blogger Marcus Langford has launched his new T-shirt online store, Marcus Langford Designs.

In what is probably best described as "Langford's sense of humor meets fabric and thread", Marcus has put up nearly 800 t-shirt combinations between different colors, garment type and impression designs. Browse through long enough and you're sure to find something that interests you!

The site is powered by SpreadShirt.com, so each transaction is guaranteed to be simple, secure and the t-shirts are of the highest quality.

About a month ago Marcus announced the The Marcus Langford Foundation, dedicated to the cause of breast cancer. At that time he generously pledged 20% of all profits from this t-shirt venture to go towards his foundation.

So not only do you get a quality t-shirt guaranteed to start a conversation wherever you go, but you can feel good knowing that a generous portion of the proceeds from your purchase is going to a fantastic cause.

Check out MLDtees.com today.

Best of luck to you in your new endeavor, Marcus!

Why do I love the music from Super Mario Brothers?

2008-04-15T17:06:00.002-04:00

I always get a thrill out of seeing videos of people playing piano themes from the Super Mario Brothers games.

Perhaps it's just a little video game nostalgia, or I just can't get enough of that funky piano beat. Whatever it is, it's pretty cool.