…and a few other things. Darn it, I have 3500 bookmarks in delicious. I’ve been using it since 2003. Warren Ellis covers this eloquently: “Hey, Yahoo? Running del.icio.us cost you pennies, and bought you so much goodwill. Now you’re just another of those scumfucks who acquires great services just to bury them.”
Here are links to a couple of articles about possible alternatives:
5 Solid Alternatives to Del.icio.us
10 Alternatives To Delicious.com Bookmarking
Author: Andrew Huey
GPS
I just ordered a new GPS from Amazon. I’ve been using an older TomTom that I bought back in 2007. It still works, but it’s been a little flaky, and my map update service has expired. I decided to take advantage of a Black Friday special, and pick up a new TomTom with lifetime maps & traffic, and a few other features that the old GPS didn’t have.
I like the TomTom interface, so I decided to stick with them, rather than switch to another brand. I’ve never been any good at driving anywhere unfamiliar — I’m always getting lost — so the advent of GPS technology was a godsend for me. I don’t have to use it that often, but when I do need it, I really appreciate it.
Ernie Preuss
I just found out that my Dad’s best friend Ernie passed away back in September. I have a few good photos of Ernie in my Flickr stream. This is a nice one from Christmas at some point in the late eighties, I think. Dad and Ernie gave each other a lot of odd gifts over the years.
I have a lot of fond memories of time spent with Ernie, including the time he took us for a ride in a small airplane when I was a kid. (He was an amateur pilot.) He was a great guy, and I’m going to miss him.
Libraries
Mark Evanier on libraries — I too was issued an adult library card before I was old enough to have one, mainly because I’d outgrown the stuff in the childrens library. One of the first things I remember checking out was a science fiction anthology that contained Harlan Ellison’s story “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream”. It was the scariest thing I’d ever read, by far. (Up until that point, I’d mostly been reading Hardy Boys and Encyclopedia Brown books.)
SDCC 2011
Comic-Con registration crashes for second time – SignOnSanDiego.com — Well, I *tried* to get a 4-day pass for Comic-Con today. It didn’t work out so well, for me or anyone else apparently.
And wow, the NY Times covered this too!
Motorola DROID Pro
Motorola DROID Pro first impressions | BGR | Boy Genius Report: “Something we can’t move past, though? The ear speaker. Talking on the phone with the DROID Pro is probably the worst of any handset we can remember.” — I was thinking about picking up a Droid Pro as a replacement for my BlackBerry Storm. But one thing I consider critical is being able to use the phone… as a phone. So maybe not.
Time to drop eMusic?
As eMusic Embraces Major Labels, Its Indie Core Is Leaving | Techdirt — I’ve been thinking about dropping eMusic. It might be time. I don’t get around to downloading stuff every month, so there are a lot of times where I’m paying the fee and not getting anything for it.
TV fix
The remote for my TV stopped working today. Neither my cable remote nor the remote that came with my TV would work on the TV, so I knew it was a problem with the IR receiver, rather than the remote. I figured I’d probably have to get LG to replace the IR receiver, but I went ahead and Googled for problems with LG remotes, and found this. AVS Forum rules! I just sprayed some CRC 2-26 on a headphone jack, popped it in and out of the remote port in the back of the TV a few times, and everything works fine now. Sometimes, the internet is exceedingly helpful.
A Big Book
75 Years Of DC Comics: The Art Of Modern Mythmaking
Wow, here’s a book I’d buy, if it were a lot cheaper. I’m sure it’s worth the price, considering the size — 720 pages and 16 pounds! And written by Paul Levitz, who is probably the man most qualified to write such a book, given his long tenure at DC.
AdSense
On a lark, I signed up for AdSense a while back. I haven’t really bothered looking at my account in a while though. I got a message today that they’re changing some stuff around, so I looked at my account. It appears that I made a penny in May, another penny in June, nothing in July, then sixty-one cents in August. Oh, and nothing since then. I wonder what I did in August? If I can manage to do it again, on a consistent basis, I could maybe make enough money for a coffee and bagel by the end of 2011!

