TalkingApes

Charlotte Observer | Jordan shares agenda

Charlotte Observer | 03/14/2007 | Jordan shares agenda

Jordan said he might investigate trading the Bobcats’ first-round pick and the pick the Toronto Raptors owe them, if that acquires a veteran go-to scorer.

Jordan also added that he wants to retain Bickerstaff as GM, extend Emeka Okafor’s contract and re-sigh Gerald Wallace.

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Charlotte Observer | Knight fined $25,000 for abuse of referee

Charlotte Observer | 03/13/2007 | Knight fined $25,000 for abuse of referee

Charlotte Bobcats point guard Brevin Knight has been fined by the NBA for the second time this season, over a conflict with an official.

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Winston-Salem Journal | March Madness 2007 Page WSJ

Winston-Salem Journal | March Madness 2007 Page WSJ

The Winston-Salem Journal has a nice page set up tracking news for both the Tar Heels and Blue Devils as they make their way through the tournament.

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Another MySpace killer? Virb.com could make a strong run

People are enamored with MySpace.com because it’s a behemoth. The fact is, though, that customizing it is hard, it has limited functionality and it’s owned by FOX (who will undoubtedly commercialize it and take away all the aspects of the site that people like presently).

Enter Virb.com.

Virb is like myspace in that you create an account, blog, upload videos, pictures, etc and connect with your friends. When setting up your profile page, however, they take away all the guesswork by giving either a WYSIWYG interface to change your layout, colors, etc. OR a custom place dedicated for you to input your HTML code to change your layout. They even give you a list of labels to include in your template, so for example, if you want to place a module of your top friends and 5 additional random friends in a div below your blog posts, all you need to do is put in $VIRB_topFriends(+5 Random) and it does that for you. They provide a list of available codes so you don’t have to guess.

If you are a Mr. (or Mrs.) Smartypants, you can even create your own module for inclusion in your pages.

It seems to do everything you’d want MySpace to do, and then some. It seems to be a little stronger in the customization category than Ning.com, which does have some features that I like better than Virb, like the Forum and the RSS integration. However both are more interesting, visually appealing and more user-friendly than MySpace.com.

List of Features from Virb.com:

Follow VIRB° as it continues to grow and new features are added. We’ve got a lot of stuff in the works and of course we can’t tell you EVERYTHING that’s coming, but here’s a glimpse of current and upcoming VIRB° features.

New Stuff

Invite Multiple Friends to a Group Much needed, grow your groups! (3/08)

Embed Your Virb Videos Offsite Widescreen video wherever you want to put it. (3/05)

Coming Soon

Blog Import via RSS feed will save you hours of Copy/Paste.

Expanded Features for Groups …after all Virb is about interaction.

Saving Multiple Profile Styles/Layouts …that last customization was really cool, you might want to use it again.

Not-as-new Stuff

Flickr Photo Feed means that using more than one photo sharing site doesn’t have to be twice as much work.

Multiple Taglines rotated randomly because we know you’ve got more wit than just one line.

Embedding of Approved Media gives you the ability to embed media from trusted sources, starting with Google, YouTube, Vimeo and Odeo.

Top Friends allows you to keep your best friends stuck on your profile… and you can rotate other friends into additional slots randomly.

Save Blog Drafts, then publish them when you’re ready.

Comment Categorization makes it easy to see who’s commented on your profile or media.

Basic Layout Editor gives you the ability to rearrange modules through a drag-and-drop interface.

Batch Edit for Friends allows you to update filters for many friends in one screen.

Announcement Filtering allows you to receive announcements from chosen friends only.

Recent Activity Filtering allows you to be notified of profile updates from chosen friends only.

Tailored Linking between Orgs and Members connects people to the organizations and projects that they’re a part of.

Gradient Removal on Virb Bar increases the flexibility of profile customization. (advanced CSS users only)

Lights Out Button darkens the page while you watch a video.

Remove Customization Button helps you get around messy or ugly profile customization.

Wide-screen Video player adjusts to the dimensions of videos that are uploaded.

VirbTunes for iTunes Tracking shows your friends what music you’ve been listening to and helps you find music.

Recent Activity lets you know when your friends have added new photos, videos or blogs.

Announcements are a quick way of getting a message to all of your friends.

Basic Style Editor is for anyone who isn’t a CSS pro. We like to make things easy!

Advanced HTML/CSS Editing for those of you are the CSS Pros. We like to make things flexible too!

Albums for Photos & Videos to keep things nice and organized.

Relationship Tags for Friends is an easy way to organize your college buddies or work friends… and to cross-reference them if you like.

Batch Edit for Photos simply saves you time keeping your photos organized.

Personal Music Player allows you to create a playlist of your favorite musicians on Virb.

Profile Music Player is another way to let your friends know what you’re listening to and adds a little audio to your profile.

Upcoming Shows lets you know which of your favorite musicians are playing in your area.

Module Nicknames show your creativity by letting you name your modules whatever you like.

Unlimited Personality Tag Sections let you go nuts tagging yourself… unrestricted.

Custom Modules are in case you want to put something in your profile that doesn’t fit anywhere else.

Privacy Settings are important to keeping you safe and surrounded by friends.

I have 14 friend invites left for Virb. Presently you don’t need them, but in the event that you do in the future, if you are interested in obtaining one, just reply to this post and I’ll send you one. You can check out the very basic profile I created HERE. I will be refining and investigating its features for the next few days, at least.

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FeedBlendr – blending RSS, Atom and RDF feeds into a single river of news!

FeedBlendr – blending RSS, Atom and RDF feeds into a single river of news!

FeedBlendr lets you combine a bunch of feeds into one.

FeedBlendr will grab all the feeds you enter and blend them up into a nice, thick, ‘river of news’ smoothie. You’ll get a URL where you can subscribe to everything all at once.

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Company develops “puke-ray” gun

WIRED Blogs: Danger Room

However, rather than causing intense pain, like the Active Denial System, Invocon is advertising a weapon that boasts the ability to go through walls and incapacitate everyone in a room by making them lose their balance. “Second order effects would be extreme motion sickness,” the company notes.

Basically, you’re safely in your house, an invisible beam hits you, you feel dizzy, and fall over (or puke).

Wow, a gun that shoots a ray that can penetrate walls and make you puke. Well, losing your balance is the desired effect, but puking is a neat side effect. Could you imagine what would happen if this got into the wrong hands?

Damn you for inventing the puke ray. Damn you all.

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Explaining the NFL Salary Cap

Howstuffworks “How does the NFL’s salary cap work?”

Ever wonder how the salary cap in the NFL Works? Me too. This article explains a great deal of what perplexes us about the cap. For example:

The advantage of signing bonuses for the owner is that he now has more money to spend under the cap. This is how the Washington Redskins ran up a total payroll of $92.41-million in the 2000 season when the cap was $67-million. The advantage for the player is that all signing-bonus money is guaranteed to be paid, whereas an NFL contract is not guaranteed.

… if the player is released, traded or waived, all of the bonus money that was being prorated throughout the length of the contract is accelerated to the present year.

I found another article that answered even more questions: http://www.askthecommish.com/salarycap/faq.asp

Do unsigned free agents have any impact on the Salary Cap?

Answer: For Restricted Free Agents (RFA), a Qualifying Offer is included in the team salary. This amount remains in team salary until the player is signed, the Qualifying Offer is withdrawn, or a “June 1st tender” is made. If the player is unsigned and the Team makes a June 1 or June 15 offer, this offer will be included in team salary until the player is signed, the team gives up their rights to the player, or until the Tuesday after the tenth week of the regular season if the player is unsigned.

A little explanation on how signing bonuses count against the cap:

…if a player signs a four-year deal with a $1 million signing bonus, $250,000 of that bonus will count toward team salary for each contract year ($1 million divided evenly over the four-year contract is $250,000 per year). If a team releases a player, the unamoratized bonus money (the remaining prorated bonus money) counts immediately against the cap.

But what if a player retires? How does that affect the cap?

In most cases, if a player retires, the remaining signing bonus that has not been included in salary “accelerates” and is included in that year’s team salary. Thus, the team will take an immediate salary cap hit of the remaining signing bonus.

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The Backstory on the Sith, for non-nerds.

Howstuffworks “The Sith Explained”

Have you ever wondered exactly who the Sith are, where they came from, and why they are considered so evil? Why is it that, as Yoda says, “Always two there are, no more, no less”? Why are their lightsabers always red, and what’s with all this vengeance?

Let’s face it, some people really, really like the stories behind the Star Wars movies. My son, who is 5, has been asking so many questions about Star Wars, like “why are the bad guys’ light sabers red?”, and “why are the bad guys so powerful?”. This article clears up some of those questions that the non-nerds have regarding Star Wars.

And for those of you wondering, I did find the answer to one of my son’s questions:

In the Jedi Order, each Jedi student makes a journey to get Illium Crystals for the lightsaber they will one day build. This journey is considered a rite of passage. As a result, Jedi sabers are many different colors depending on the crystals they find.

There is no such ritual for the Sith. The Sith prefer synthetic crystals for their sabers. The synthetic crystals save the Sith the long trek to get Illium Crystals, provide more blade tuning options, and give Sith sabers their characteristic red blade.

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Human Teleportation: Is it even possible?

Howstuffworks “Human Teleportation”

For a person to be transported, a machine would have to be built that can pinpoint and analyze all of the 10²⁸ atoms that make up the human body.

So, is it even physically possible to teleport a human from one place to another, assuming that the teleportation of physically matter is achievable?

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Ninja Demistifyed.

Howstuffworks “How Ninja Work”

Secretive and silent, the ninja stalks through Japanese history like a shadow, striking fear into the hearts of peasants and emperors alike. Today, the ninja has become a legendary, cult-like figure, showing up in computer games and children’s cartoons, as well as an entire genre of martial-arts action films.

But who were the real ninja? Where did they come from, and what purpose did they serve?

A good overview article on Ninja; notice I didn’t write “Ninjas“, because the plural of Ninja is Ninja. This is a common mistake, one I have made over a million times in conversations with my friends and co-workers.

But just in case you ever had questions regarding the silent assassins, click through and have some knowledge dropped upon thy self.

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