It's been quite a busy week.

A number of things happened this week, and I will touch on a few of them in the order in which they pop into my brain. So here we go!



Google Instant. Have you tried it yet? If not, let me give you a brief rundown. In the olden days (last week), you had to type in what you wanted to search for and press Enter. Now, with Google Instant, your search results will refine themselves after each letter you press.  Google believes this will save the average person around two to five seconds per search, and with the millions of users around the world, they claim that with every passing second Google Instant will save over 11 hours of time. Even as a Google fan-boy it took me some time to get used to the Instant search. When they first announced it, all I could think of is 'why do we need this?' And yes, it took some time to get used to it because at first, it was more distracting than helpful. Each time I would press a letter, I would quickly scroll through the results to see what came up so far. But now it has been a few days, and it seems like the majority of Google search users all have the same opinion... we like it! And for the few people that really don't care to use it, you can simply turn it off. What's your opinion of Google Instant so far?

Apple. They had an announcement. Everything is new again. The iPod touch is now slimmer and lighter, Apple TV will now let you rent movies and TV shows, and they are rolling out iOS-4 and iTunes 10. The two things I found most intriguing during this announcement were;
1) Ping. "It's like Twitter meets Facebook for music." I signed up for it, but I still don't really get it. It allows you to connect with other music lovers and follow your favorite artists. I'll admit I'm not a huge music buff and maybe that's why. But why would you use a new program when there are already dozens of sites out there that do the same thing? Oh, and you can only use Ping in iTunes, unlike all the other social networking sites that are based in the cloud and accessible from any computer with an internet connection. I think Apple is trying just a little too hard, a little too late.
2) The new iPod Nano. Unlike the other iPods, the new Nano underwent a complete redesign. The size has but cut in half. It is now no bigger than a scuba diving watch. Check out the new Nano here. This was the only part of Apple's announcement that truly impressed me. They got rid of the control wheel and made the entire thing a touch-screen. And if you clip it on upside down, you can rotate the screen 360 degrees. Leo Laporte over at TWiT has said that people will be wearing them as watches, and I think I have to agree with him. It really is the perfect size. There is a pedometer built into the Nano as well, so all you fitness buffs can keep track of how far you walk each day.

Now for some non-computer things. An idiot pastor in Gainesville has gotten the entire planet in an uproar over his claim that he was going to burn the Koran on the 9th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks. He stated he would cancel the book burning if the planned mosque near Ground Zero was moved to another location. So, let me get this straight... you are holding their religious book hostage and will release it under the condition they move their religious building. Please explain to me how that is different from Islamic terrorists kidnapping a news reporter and holding them for ransom? The only difference is, the pastor would have sparked another war or attack on US soil... all because he doesn't follow the teachings in his OWN book. "Judge not lest ye be judged" is one that comes to mind. He posted a video on YouTube a while back holding up the Koran and saying this book is the reason for 9/11, so he has had it out for Islam for quite some time. The majority of the blame should lie on the shoulders of the media. If they had not paid any attention to a redneck pastor in a church of less than 50 people, nobody would have cared. But they wanted a story, so they made one.

Also, since I'm from Tallahassee I feel the need to share this. Our FSU Seminoles won their first game against Samford last week with a score of 59-6. No big deal as Samford is the equivalent of a high school Junior Varsity team. But against a team ranked #10 in Oklahoma... the Noles got it handed to them with a 47-17 loss. A year ago the majority of the city was calling for the resignation of Bobby Bowden because he wasn't  pulling in the wins like he used to, and it's true. But I don't recall Bobby losing a game by so wide of a margin in the past 20 years. I kinda hope he was smiling as he watched the game last night while saying something like, "How's the new, younger coach working out for ya?"

And that, my friends, is the big things that happened last week that I can think of. I hope that you are now up to date with your news. If you are a technology fan, go check out the shows at TWiT. They are very well educated and a lot of fun to watch. Hey, that's how I stay current on my general technology and Google news and get another perspective on things.

Time to end this post.... season finale of True Blood is tonight at 9, so don't you dare call me after 8:45.

Until next time!