The other day my wife had a tire blowout.  She doesn't think she hit anything.  Nonetheless, it was a loud "explosion."  Fortunately, she was only driving about 40 MPH and could immediately pull over.  As you can see below, a huge 4" gash was in the sidewall.

Last night I ordered a new computer.  I haven't upgraded for several years...it was time.

I ordered it from NewEgg.com and paid for it with Discover Card.  They have this feature called Secured Online Account Numbers.  It is pretty nice.  You log in and get new credit card number for each vendor that you pay online.  That number is only good at the vendor.  I did that last night.  This morning, I tried to use my card and it got rejected/flagged.  I also got an email and phone call from Discover.  I called them up and told them that I really did buy that computer.  Some people might find this annoying or irritating.  I think it is a good service.  I would rather this happened and error on the conservative.

Here is picture that my daughter drew:

Definitely not another Y2K, but it still was interesting.  Here is what I noticed:

• All my computers had no problems
• The usual VCR clocks had to still be manually changed.
• Our cable box from Time Warner did not change at 1:00 AM.  I was up and saw it say 1:35 AM (which never existed).  It was fine by the morning.
• Our Honda Odyssey which has a built in navigation always updates by itself.  It set the right time based upon where you are.  However, it didn't understand today's change.  It was still an hour behind.  The clock is not settable.  However, you can offset it by +/- hours.  I imagine I will have to do this again in a few weeks.

One personal note, both of my children were born on DLS weekends (both spring and fall).  In fact, if my son was born 5 minutes later, they would have had to indicate which 1:00 AM he was actually born on.  This was because there were 2 "1 AM" times that night (the fall).  It was a little confusing because the nurses were updating all of the clocks beginning at midnight.

DAM as in Digital Asset Management.  One of my hobbies that I have had great interest in since high school has been photography.  I have always enjoyed the whole experience:  taking pictures, developing, printing and sharing.  In fact, I really wanted to create my own darkroom in my house just before digital photography became available.

I have been evaluating the following products for quite some time:

• Google's Picasa2
• Microsoft's Digital Image Suite 2006
• iMatch Image Management
• iView Media Pro3 (Microsoft Elements)

Others that I have researched but did not try were the following:

• Adobe LightRoom (beta)
• Adobe Photoshop Elements

It is truly amazing how some of the products do a few things very nice but fall short in some other aspect that makes it very frustrating. 

Some of the key things that I looked at were:

• Ease of use
• UI--Is it clunky?  It is elegant and simple?  Is is overwhelming?
• Speed--Do I need water cooling or a 486?
• Extensibility--Can you script?  Does it support plugins? 
• How well does it play with others?--Does it use standard IPTC or EXIF?  Does have a proprietary format or backend database?  Where does it store its data?
• Tagging and Organization:  Does it support hierarchical tagging?  What about GEO Tagging? 
• Offline Capabilities
• Unwanted upselling?  Does "encourage" you to use their vendor for printing or web hosting of the pictures?
• Does it support RAW?
• Workflow:  Does it support multiuser?  how do you import the pictures?
• Cost

Some of the things that were really low on my list were:

• Photo editing
• CD/DVD editing
• Picture sharing

I will starting posting a writeup on these.

Tonight's selection of #2 college football team will clearly demonstrate the broken BCS system.  In my mind, Florida is only possible choice to play against Ohio State.  Michigan is always a losing pick for the BCS.  If they would lose to Ohio State (again), why did they play?  If they beat OSU, we need a rubber match and clearly there is no winner. 

I have heard all of the arguments about how great rematches have been in sport history...such as Ali - Frazier.  But football is really not a rematch sport.  Also, rematches are not consecutive games.

If you want to watch a rematch, watch the new Rocky movie.

I had a big win this weekend in fantasy football.  Even TO added a few points.

Santana Moss lifts Roxymorons to victory, 136-80

(10/3/2006) — Anthony Your acknowledged being nervous before the game, partly because of the outlandish “taking candy from a baby” comment on how the Roxymorons would have their way against the Night Owls defense.

Santana Moss had a huge day with three touchdowns and 138 yards receiving. Moss, who scored from 55 and 8 yards in regulation, made a spectacular 68-yard catch and run touchdown in overtime. Thomas Jones finally delivered a productive game, scoring on 2 short runs and over 100 yards of total offense. Jones hadn't gained more than 66 yards of offense in any of the first 3 games. Tom Brady's yardage numbers are way down from last season, but he looked sharp this week. Brady scored on 2 touchdown passes, completing 15 of 26 passes for 188 yards.

"I'm encouraged by the offense," Roxymorons coach Anthony Your said. "Santana Moss gives us an added dimension."

Willis McGahee is still looking for first his big game of the season after rushing for just 78 yards this week. McGahee gave owners some hope with his first touchdown of the season. LaDainian Tomlinson had a tough matchup this week but he still managed to gain over 100 yards of total offense for the third game in a row. LT has another difficult matchup next week against Pittsburgh. Chad Pennington completed 17 of 23 passes for 207 yards and a touchdown against a tough Indy defense this week. Pennington also had 2 turnovers in a game for the first time this season.

"After Santana Moss broke it open with the catch and run, it jump-started everything," Roxymorons coach Anthony Your said. "It took the pressure off the defense to some extent, because we were faltering miserably in the first half."

It wasn't a good week.  With TO on sabbatical and Stallworth stalled, it was ugly.

Pocket Rockets beat Roxymorons 85-64 behind play of Robbie Gould

Milford (9/26/2006) — "An old coach told me that the mark of a good quarterback is how many times he gets his team in the end zone," Roxymorons quarterback Tom Brady said. "I'm man enough to take responsibility for that."
Robbie Gould repeated his week 1 success by making all 4 of his field goal attempts, giving him 10 on the season. Gould now leads the league in kicking points. Larry Fitzgerald scored on a 12-yard reception but he's having trouble hitting the 100-yard mark again. Fitzgerald finished with less than 70 yards for the second game in a row. Daunte Culpepper continued to depress owners who took a chance on him. Culpepper, who was sacked 5 times, scored on a 5-yard run and threw for 168 yards.
"We never lost that will to win -- the guys just kept on fighting," said Pocket Rockets coach Chris Ellison.
Tom Brady's arm has got to be tired after 55 pass attempts on Sunday. Brady connected on 31 of them for 320 yards and an 8-yard touchdown.
"It's been tough around here," Roxymorons coach Anthony Your said, "but we kept our belief."

This week, I didn't do as good on the scoring.

I very disappointed in my quarterbacks so far.  Defense does look good though.

Here is the writeup:

 

QuickBasics stink in loss to Roxymorons

(9/19/2006) — Anthony Your is a perfectionist. Even after leading the Roxymorons to a 95-88 win the coach refused to accept any compliments, instead moving on to prepare for the next opponent.

Donte' Stallworth found the end zone for the second week in a row, this time on a 20-yard reception. You have to believe that Stallworth is loving his new surroundings. Matt Stover booted 4 field goals and 2 extra points to remain perfect on the season. Tiki Barber struggled most of the day, but the overtime period helped him reach the 100-yard mark for total offense for the second week in a row. Tiki average less than 2.5 yards per carry this week.

"I have to commend our team for sticking together," Roxymorons coach Anthony Your said.

Drew Bledsoe rose to the occasion this week by connecting on 2 touchdown passes and throwing for 237 yards. Bledsoe only completed 50% of his passes, but there were a lot of dropped balls. Donald Driver just keeps going and going… this week with 8 catches for 153 yards and 1 run for 16 yards. Driver hasn't found the end zone yet this season, but it appears to be just a matter of time.

"They came to play today," QuickBasics coach Jeff Handley said. "And they made a number of big plays. They did the job that they had to do. We got behind the 8-ball in the first half and couldn’t overcome it."