“… The more interesting your life is, the less likely you’ll have time to document it… ”
By Mike Propst.

Amen Brother… Amen…

I’ll post some updates about everything going on this week. I Promise.

I’m was really getting sick of Firefox constantly coming to a screeching hault for what seems to be no reason… I would just be sitting there and hear the fans on my computer rev up like jet turbines, while my CPU cooked at 99% — all for no reason.. I literally run 5 programs on my computer. SSH, Winamp, Photoshop, AIM, and Firefox. That’s it. I don’t need some Eleventy Core Krytonite Encased processor — because when everything is working fine my machine just sits there practically sleeping…

So, for the last year, my machine would just come to a screeching halt, until I killed FireFox, and restarted it… Loosing whatever I was working on. Every time FF would come out with a new version, I would say “This is the one!! This will fix all my troubles!!” But it only seemed to get worse.. And I didn’t want to blame FireFox, because the issue started to seem to have a pattern — It seemed to only happen when I was working on Certain sites… So I started watch closely at when it happened, and what I was doing..

Finally, after 2-3 weeks.. I noticed that every time this happened.. I was looking at something that had like 10 Flash ads/apps going crazy.. (And sadly, most of these were sites that I work on) So I decided to install a FlashBlock Plugin for FireFox..

Wow. It is unreal the difference.. FireFox is now back to the glory days of being rock solid.. Pages load faster than ever, and are 1000% less obnoxious… And if you wanna see something that is in flash — it’s only 1 click away…

I seriously recommend anyone here that uses FireFox — try FlashBlock for 1 week. Flash is the new Web Pollution.. It’s very cool — but needs to be used responsibly… I have now been running the same FireFox Process for 10 days without any crashes or lockups… Seriously, it can’t hurt to try it..

I love when I catch crap like this… This is a crowd show from the April 3rd, 2008 Today Show with George Clooney…

Just Saying.. She’s doing a good job representing UCF… Might Be perfect for Stone… (Sorry Jon, she has gloves on, can’t tell if she is single… But has that ever stopped you before? ;) )

It’s no secret that I have a nickname… And that nickname is simply “Celly”. No matter what I do, I can not kill it… The worst part is, It’s really a stupid nick name… It doesn’t come from anything ironic physical attribute (calling a big guy tiny), or something I did (Shout out to Limpy), or even a pun on my name (No, my last name is not Sullivan) …

It comes from the fact that my first week at College, there were way too many “Michael’s” in the group I hung out with. So, they informed me that One night I would get drunk, do something stupid, and earn my nickname.. Problem was, I didn’t drink (Yet… Big huge yet…) Which they loved, because I was their new Designated Driver.. Everywhere… So, One day, as 3 drunk people stumble out of my car, one looks at the back of it where there is a sticker that says “Celly”… He says “Whats ‘Celly’?” — I replied — “That’s my cars name…” — He looks at me, smiles, and says “That’s so ****ing stupid… That’s now your new nick name…”

11 Years later.. I have yet to live it down.

So, in honor of the Joke, as I get new Cars, each one earns a “Celly” Name… In fact, when I talk about getting new cars, people care more about the new name than the car itself.. The names have become a rather humorous yet, big deal.. So, I play along..

87 Toyota Celica was my first car. Infact the first ‘Celly’.. But not the ‘Celly’ That gave me my name…

94 Toyota Celica… This was the car that started it all…

2002 Mazda Protege 5. This Is how the “naming” started. When I was selling my celica, everyone joked “What are we going to call you now..” — Jon Stone kept saying “Still Celly” — So it stuck.

2004 Subaru WRX. There is not a day that goes by that I don’t miss this car. This was probably the best car I ever owned — And Still to this day, WRX/STI are the most bang for the buck you’ll find. With one of the best communities you can find… Shout out to NASIOC..

2006 Toyota Tundra XSP.. I love this truck.. Everyone loves this truck… Just one rule… I’ll Haul anything.. Move Nothing…

So, there you have it… The History of ‘Celly’… Very Unexciting… And I think it makes me just a lil more creepy now.. huh?

Oh Crap.. I forgot… There is one more… (Click on ‘There’s More to this >>’ below..)
(more…)

Every once in a while I see something so simple, yet it’s such a great idea, it just makes me scratch my head and think “Why the hell didn’t I think of that?”..

Evolve shower heads have come out with a line of shower heads that turn off when the water reaches temperature. So, You turn on the water, wait to hear it run to a trickle. And jump on it. Not only does this save water and electricity, but it also tells you when your shower is ready… No More jumping in and freezing your butt off…

So simple… Yet so brilliant.. I do like how the latest green fad is actually innovating simple household objects not only to make them ‘greener’ but also more useful…

Hat tip: Green Daily

So after feeling under the weather for the few days or so, I heard that there is a nasty post SXSW virus going around. It has to be nasty, I haven’t been sick in 2 years, because it usually takes some sort of über bug to knock me on my ass. Then again, I guess I’m not all that surprised and should of saw it coming.

So, seeing that 90% of the people @ SXSW were using Mac’s — I guess they figured since they can’t pass any good Internet viruses around, they might as well try the flu. F’n mac fanboys, they’ll do anything to try and get noticed.

I’m off to Texas for a few days for SXSW 2008. I might just break down and get a new Twitter Account.. because my current one tends to scream in Japanese at people… Go figure… In the mean time, you can try this link instead… God bless case sensitivity…

I caught this guy hanging out on my pomegranate bush this morning. It’s times like this I wish I still had my SLR, but my lil’ Fuji Finepix did a decent job of grabbing a picture of this guy.

Even though he is trying to blame me for this — I’ll support the fight: Don’t Send flowers with FTD.

I’m starting to see issues like this more and more with “Big Box” Internet stores. Two years ago, the same thing happened to me when I sent flowers to Jaime with 1-800-FLOWERS. To make matters worse, when they finally did show up the next day they were in a Beer Mug instead of a vase. Classy. And the year before that I sent Jaime tulips. First, they didn’t send tulips. Second, whatever they did send was pretty dead when she got them. Awesome.

Unlike 1-800-Flowers, I’ve had decent luck with FTD, but I guess it all comes down to: You get what you pay for, and on Valentines day — the thought doesn’t count, so you better have your sh** together. When all else fail, blame me. ;)

This past September, to the delight of many, Brighthouse turned on four new HD channels — HGTV HD, TBS HD, The History Channel HD and Food Network HD. Over the last 2 months, they have been sending out flyer’s to it’s customers talking about the addition of Discovery Channel HD, Animal Planet HD, TLC HD, Science Channel HD and National Geographic HD on February 1st. Unfortunately, what a large community of Brighthouse Customers found, was that instead of adding 5 new channels, they had lost four (Or Nine if you include the new ones).

What is rapidly turning out to be a PR Nightmare for Brighthouse, they decided to disable these channels to all Cablecard users — Which include owners of Tivo’s, HDTV’s, and Media PC’s that choose not to use the craptacular equipment that Brighhouse charges it’s users for.

The original thought for the reason that these channels had been disabled was that Brighthouse had enabled SDV [Switched Digital Video] — A technology that is not supported at this time by cable cards. However, after the sleuthing of the Tivo Community Brighthouse employees admitted that Brighthouse has not switched to SDV, and have purposely chosen to disable these channels specifically for Cable Card users.

[Note: The press release says nothing about changes to Cablecard Users — or that the change is only for Brighthouse Equipment Users]
“Bright House Networks Added Five High Definition and Two Digital Channels on Fri., Feb. 1, 2008, at No Additional Cost to Subscribers”

Oh really? Seriously? They why are you telling us to pay more to upgrade to Brighthouse Equipment?!?!.

Despite as an “olive branch”, Brighthouse offered me a complimentary cable box, if I choose to keep my cable cards I need to keep paying $2.95/ea (keep in mind, they took me 4-weeks to get) and also pay $9.95 for their DVR Service (which is horrible since TiVo controls all the usability patents). Also, until a solution for cablecard SDV support is released, Brighthouse now has a feather in their cap to keep people from purchasing any 3rd Party equipment. This means they now collect the hardware rental fees, and DVR subscription fees that pads their pockets and keeps their network a nice proprietary money making machine.

Futhermore, Third party hardware users have additional media delivery options beyond what you get with Brighthouse’s equipment. I can rent movies from Amazon, stream MP3’s, share media with family, Watch TV I recorded on my computer, view digital photos, etc. All of these services are either better or directly compete with Brighthouse’s premium services ie. Video on demand, Digital Music, Pay-Per-View — All of which you pay extra for, so by having such a device, users can minimize their bills.

So, to simplify. Brighthouse Networks is forcing customers to pay upwards of $20 additional to receive channels that there is not a single reason why they can not receive with their own hardware and a $3 cablecard. They have also removed my premium features I get with my Tivo — And now, instead of buying a movie from amazon and having it delivered to my Tivo, the comperable solution is to use Brighouses PPV. Instead of streaming Music from my computer, the comprable solution is to subscribe and use Brighthouse’s music channels. And on top of all of the additional fees, they have now managed to launch a slander campaign against 3rd Party Technologies like Tivo. [That’s right! Because now, when someone asks me (Or any Cable Card User) if they should buy such a device, we now need to say “Well, only if you don’t want to be missing 25%+ of the HD Channels.” ]

*Clap* *Clap* Well Done Brighthouse. At least your J.D. Power customer service award was fun while it lasted.

Details around the Web:
Orlando Sentinel
EngadgetHD
TivoCommunity

UPDATE!
Within 30 mins of publishing this. 3 Seperate IP addresses within the “MyBrighthouse.com” domain have hit this blog post. I know you’re out there Brighthouse! There is a comment form below. Use it — I’d like to hear what you have to say.