April 23rd, 2008
There was a segment on NPR last week about the fishing industry. Needless to say, Slicksta was a little dismayed at what he heard:
- Wild salmon get their orange flesh from a pigment in the krill they eat. Farm raised salmon are fed an artificial pigment to match this color. Their flesh would be light gray otherwise.
- Fish suppliers sometimes pump carbon monoxide into tuna flesh to keep it bright red. The carbon monoxide reverses the natural oxidation process that turns the tuna’s flesh spotty and brown.
- “Chilean Sea Bass” is the marketing name invented to boost sales of the unfortunately named “Patagonian Toothfish”
Filed under: Food |
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February 16th, 2008
Slicksta just caught up on some weekend TV and barely made it through the 50th Annual Grammy Awards. What a disaster! Here is some Slicktified constructive criticism for the producers and directors of the show.
- Quit it with the mash-ups. Having artists from different eras or genres perform together is more novel an idea than exciting a performance. And getting country singers to introduce rap categories or vice versa is not that clever either.
- Don’t give out too many lifetime achievement awards. Paying tribute to great artists of yesteryear is great in Slicksta’s book but it seemed like everyone who recorded an album before 1980 got recognized this year.
- Shorten the show puh-lease. The 3.5 hours was painful for Slicksta even with even the commercials fast-forwarded. Maybe 10-15 less lifetime achievement awards.
- Resist the urge to design contests where fans can appear on-stage or perform live. Slicksta loved the Foo Fighters performance (Foo Fighters rock - YEAH DUDE!) but the violinist who got the most votes, from us the fans, watching at home in TV-land, contributed nothing to the song. She kinda just stood there with all the other violinists. Any viewers who paid to text-message in their votes was ripped off.
- Throw some political clout around and get your winningest performer into the country. If Slicksta knew ahead of time that Amy Winehouse was going to win big he’d have called in some favors with the State Department (is that BitTorrent on your computer Condy?) and made sure she was at Staples. Hers was one of the best performances of the night and it was a shame that Cuba Gooding Jr. was the only America who got to see it in person.
Filed under: TV Shows |
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February 13th, 2008
Some companies make it really hard for their employees to use instant messaging programs at work. Slicksta thinks this is terrible and wants to help you stay in touch with your buddies! If you find your IM access blocked at work try one of the following sites:
- Meebo - One of Slicksta’s favorite websites / services that he uses everyday. See his previous glowing remarks.
- AIM Express - This is the site most people try when they are unable to install AIM on their work computer.
- Yahoo! Web Messenger - All you Yahooligans can chat online without having to download the messenger application. Just liek AIM Express for YIM.
- GMail - Gmail is not just for GTalk anymore. You can now use AIM through the Gmail interface. Consider yourself in the know thanks to Slicksta.
- eBuddy - Like Meebo but not quite as slick. Also great for use on a mobile phone.
Filed under: Websites |
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February 11th, 2008
There are many blogging platforms and services out there but Slicksta hearts the most. Aspiring bloggers whether technically inclined or not will find WordPress easy to understand and even simpler to use.
- Easy to Install - The famous “Five Minute Install” is misleading. It usually takes Slicksta 2-3 minutes tops to get an new instance of WordPress up and running.
- Easy to Configure - Out of the
box zip file Wordpress is ready to go. You can easily customize the design of your blog and features like commenting, how the URL looks. All of this is done via a slick AJAXed admin panel.
- Easy to Customize - Trick out your blog with one of many free themes and plugins. All you do is upload a theme/plugin to your blog and click a link in the admin panel to activate it.
- Active Community - There are lots of people who love WordPress and they write themes and plugins for everyone to use. WordPress hosts an active forum where users share tips and help one another.
- FREE - WordPress is free and always has been. You can even create a hosted blog and not worry about having to buy a domain name or FTPing files. Slicksta can afford free.
Filed under: Blogs, Products |
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February 9th, 2008
Looking to get into PHP/MySQL development? Building websites as a hobby can be fun and rewarding albeit time-consuming. These open source technologies make web development accessible to anyone with a computer and an idea. Here are a few sites and services that Slicksta found helpful when he was learning.
- Sitepoint.com - This site if full of article and practical tutorials to help you get started. Build your own Database Driven Website using PHP & MySQL is what Slicksta read when he first became interested in webdev.
- 1and1 Hosting - Inexpensive, reliable and fully-featured. You can register a domain name and get managed hosting for under $5 a month.
- Add the MySQL and PHP sites to your bookmarks. Slicksta still visits these at least once a day for code reference information.
- phpAdmin - Download and install this database management program now. Do it! It’s the same program that you’ll use on 1and1 to manage your hosted databases.
- Fire FTP - Transfer files in a FireFox window. No need to open another application.
Filed under: Products, Services, Websites |
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February 8th, 2008
Slicksta really enjoyed the first episode of Survivor 16: Micronesia. The Favorites vs. Fans concept is awesome and this looks to be another entertaining season.
- The fans have this false sense of confidence (”we watched the Favorites on tv - we know their game!”) and the Favorites’ cockiness was put in check when they lost the first challenge. Eliza in particular got a pretty nasty facial when she went airborne in a cart vs. tree accident.
- It’s fun to see your favorite survivors back in “context” since your last memories of them are from the finale show. Don’t they always look kinda weird in street clothes and with their hair combed?
- Boobs are just everywhere this season and Slicksta commends the producers of Survivor for acknowledging that this is part of the show’s appeal.
- Kathy is a freak! She made a big deal about never having met a gay man before and made some off comment about another contestants rack. (Note to Kathy: see #3)
- Jonny Fairplay got right into his devious game-play and ended up out-smarting himself and getting the boot!
Filed under: TV Shows |
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August 29th, 2007
Slicksta launched another project this week: OfficePicker.com. He was dismayed by the poor usability and lack of fun-factor on those other sports sites so he created his own, simple to use tool for football pools. In under two minutes you can setup a pool and invite your friends and co-workers to join.
The first NFL game is next Thursday, 9/6 so setup your office pool today!
Filed under: Websites |
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July 26th, 2007
Easy to setup
By
tomslick from
Las Vegas, NV on
7/26/2007
5out of 5
Pros: Interfaces Well With TV, Intuitive Controls, Easy To Setup, Clear Sound
Cons: Bass a little boomy
Best Uses: Surround Sound Solution
Describe Yourself: Practical, Musically Inclined, Tech Savvy
This system is a pretty good deal at just over $500. You get a full complement of speakers, iPod dock and upscaling DVD player. The wireless surround and sub-woofer work perfectly and make setup so much easier. Sound quality is decent but this system is more about the convenience factor. My only complaint is that the sub is a little boomy at higher levels and as result I end up leaving it on the lowest setting.
(legalese)
Filed under: Products |
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July 25th, 2007
A few friends recently visited Slicksta and brought with them a nifty new device: The Nokia 770 Internet Tablet. It’s a slim and portable internet-browsing tablet with a generous and bright screen and built-in WIFI. Web pages rendered in full and were easily readable and at under $150, it’s an inexpensive alternative to toting a laptop around everywhere. CNET was harsh in their review of the Nokia 770 citing sluggish performance and missing features as major faults. Slicksta liked the device but thought a QWERTY would be easier to use than the included stylus.
Regardless, the Nokia 770 gives Slicksta hope that we’ll soon see more portable web devices with bigger screens and other bundled options like camera, music/movie player, GPS and data storage. Throw in a phone, pair the device with a Bluetooth headset and you’ve got an all-in-one dream gadget.
Filed under: Products |
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June 26th, 2007
Slicksta has been getting lots of telemarkting calls lately - on the cell phone! He thought these annoyances were a thing of the 90s, left behind along with the useless land-line he abandoned years ago but he was wrong. He’s been called several times in the past week with various “exciting offers” and “important messages”.
Not one to live in fear of newspaper subscription drives or loan brokers Slicksta made a quick visit to the Do Not Call Registry website. He found registering his number incredibly easy. All he had to do was enter his number and email address. A message was sent to the email address to confirm the registration and that was pretty much it. Slicksta will now be undisturbed for the next five years.
Filed under: Services |
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