One of my buddies just taught me how to play chess.  I’ve always been kind of hesitant to learn, because it seemed like something you had to take a year of college to learn.  Well, like most things in life, I was wrong.  The basics of the game are quite easy to learn.  I hear there are all kinds of strategies and such, which I’m sure I’ll learn in due time.   In the mean time, I’ve found a neat site that you can sign into, and start a game.  My settings are that each player has to make a move every 3 days.   We started yesterday, and have made several moves since.  You receive an email each time it’s your turn.  Here’s the link - it’s called GameKnot.com

For  a faster chess game, which they say (and it’s true!) is “Cup of Coffee Compatible.”  - See InstantChess.com.    You pick a screen name (no logging in) and you’re matched up with a player instantly.    I’ve played a few and have been destroyed each time.  I’m sure with practice I’ll get better. 

USB Wine:  This is awesome.  The page is in French, but you can get the idea by watching the video.   Choose from over 150 styles of wine.   Once you select one, open the tap on your USB wine dispenser, and out comes the wine you chose.  A great way to taste wine and not have to leave home!

Check out the flash version of this site.  I don’t smoke, but I was so intriqued by this site, I kept watching.  Click the logo to see the site.

Google Maps released new locations recently, one of them being Detroit. It looks like they go as far south as Eureka Rd., I haven’t gone north on it yet. But, I did find my favorite brewery in Lincoln Park! Click picture to browse Detroit street view maps.

I signed up to beta test Hulu.com, a website for watching television episodes. The site has a huge selection of shows, mostly network shows like Heroes, The Office, The Simpson’s and tons more. There’s even older shows, like The A-Team (my personal favorite) and WKRP in Cincinnati. You’ll get the normal, every so often lag that you get from other sites like YouTube, but I find if I pause it for a bit, or use the pop-out feature, I don’t get the lag-skip that absolutely drives me crazy when I watch online shows. Hulu is actually really cool, the video watching experience is nice - you can go full screen, or dim the lights, which dims down the area around the video. There are commercials, but I found I didn’t mind them, because Hulu added a countdown feature “your show will resume in 10, 9, 8…” It kind of made the commercial worth while sitting through. Create your own playlist, rate videos and even comment on them. There’s an embed feature also - which, we’ll see if it works below - if it does, enjoy an episode of the A-Team!

My Mac at work has been pretty slow.  Today I cleaned it up, and figured I should empty the trash.   Over 22,000 items were in there waiting to be emptied.   Oops!

p.s.  I’ve also been slacking on the blog.  I used to have plenty of time at home to blog, but this past month, I haven’t been on my computer much at all.   I’ll work on it, I think after December, things should slow down with my outside of work activities.