What Kind of Cigar Are You?

Check this out. I came across this online today. Pretty funny...

Mmmmm a good cigar... Now just need a good Scotch to go with that.
The Macallan anyone?

The Winning Draught is Over!!

Finally after weeks and weeks.. well it seemed like forever. I play on 4 indoor teams at the moment and none of the teams had won a game in ages. Finally on Sunday, my open team pulled off a win. The majority of us are over 30's, but we seemed to have good chemistry this time. We beat this team last session too. They are a bunch of kids, just out of high school. Some of them might still be in school. Last time we were beating them pretty good and they got mad and tried to start a fight. You know they were getting beat by a bunch of old guys. Funny thing is, my team has two cops. One state one city. Not a smart person to hit. It would be pretty tough to defend yourself in court if the cop presses charges. ;)
Anyway, it was nice to beat them again, and finally get another win!

Coed last night wasn't so lucky though....

Blackbird e-Solutions Procures SEO Deal with TriStarr Staffing

On January 16, 2008, Blackbird e-Solutions signed a deal with TriStarr Staffing to take over their Search Engine Optimization (SEO) campaign.

TriStarr Staffing is a leading staffing company serving central and eastern Pennsylvania, that specializes in Administrative and Professional Staffing. They plan to use SEO to help continued promotion of their well known specialties, as well as their newer services such as Recruiting Support and Human Resources Advisory Services.

The project will be a collaboration with the marketing firm; Haley Marketing Group. Haley will be creating the site design and the copy. BbeS is providing “Organic Site Optimization”, which includes the following: Site Evaluation, Keyword Research and Analysis, Site Optimization and Manual Submission to Major Search Engines. (Follow the link for more information about our Search Engine Optimization services or Contact Us).

We look forward to working with TriStarr Staffing, as well as collaborating with Haley Marketing Group.

I’ll also post and update when the site goes live.

From: e-Life Discussion about Blackbird e-Solutions and the Tech and Localization Industries

Darwin Awards

Yes, it's that magical time of year again when the Darwin Awards are bestowed, honoring the least evolved among us.

Here is the glorious winner:

1. When his 38-calibre revolver failed to fire at his intended victim during a hold-up in Long Beach , California , would-be robber James Elliot did something that can only inspire wonder. He peered down the barrel and tried the trigger again. This time it worked.

And now, the honorable mentions:

2. The chef at a hotel in Switzerland lost a finger in a meat-cutting machine and, after a little shopping around, submitted a claim to his insurance company. The company expecting negligence sent out one of its men to have a look for himself. He tried the machine and he also lost a finger. The chef's claim was approved.

3. A man who shoveled snow for an hour to clear a space for his car during a blizzard in Chicago returned with his vehicle to find a woman had taken the space. Understandably, he shot her.

4. After stopping for drinks at an illegal bar, a Zimbabwean bus driver found that the 20 mental patients he was supposed to be transporting from Harare to Bulawayo had escaped. Not wanting to admit his incompetence, the driver went to a nearby bus stop and offered everyone waiting there a free ride. He then delivered the passengers to the mental hospital, telling the staff that the patients were very excitable and prone to bizarre fantasies. The deception wasn't discovered for 3 days.

5. An American teenager was in the hospital recovering from serious head wounds received from an oncoming train. When asked how he received the injuries, the lad told police that he was simply trying to see how close he could get his head to a moving train before he was hit.

6. A man walked into a Louisiana Circle-K, put a $20 bill on the counter, and asked for change. When the clerk opened the cash drawer, the man pulled a gun and asked for all the cash in the register, which the clerk promptly provided. The man took the cash from the clerk and fled, leaving the $20 bill on the counter. The total amount of cash he got from the drawer . . . $15. (If someone points a gun at you and gives you money, is a crime committed?)

7. Seems an Arkansas guy wanted some beer pretty badly. He decided that he'd just throw a cinder block through a liquor store window, grab some booze, and run. So he lifted the cinder block and heaved it over his head at the window. T he cinder block bounced back and hit the would-be thief on the head, knocking him unconscious. The liquor store window was made of Plexiglas. The whole event was caught on videotape.

8. As a female shopper exited a New York State convenience store, a man grabbed her purse and ran. The clerk called 911 immediately, and the woman was able to give them a detailed description of the snatcher. Within minutes, the police apprehended the snatcher. They put him in the car and drove back to the store. The thief was then taken out of the car and told to stand there for a positive ID. To which he replied, "Yes, officer, that's her. That's the lady I stole the purse from."

9. The Ann Arbor News crime column reported that a man walked into a Burger King in Ypsilanti , Michigan , at 5 A.M., flashed a gun, and demanded cash. The clerk turned him down because he said he couldn't open the cash register without a food order. When the man ordered onion rings, the clerk said they weren't available for breakfast. The man, frustrated, walked away. (*A 5-STAR STUPIDITY AWARD WINNER)

10. When a man attempted to siphon gasoline from a motor home parked on a Seattle street, he got much more than he bargained for. Police arrived at the scene to find a very sick man curled up next to a motor home near spilled sewage. A police spokesman said that the man admitted to trying to steal gasoline and plugged his siphon hose into the motor home's sewage tank by mistake. The owner of the vehicle declined to press charges saying that it was the best laugh he'd ever had.

Strange phone calls..

I received a call from that number 401-889-9876 (Rhode Island) tonight and it was a Spanish recording. I Googled the number and came up with some info. Aparently I'm not the only one getting this call. My question is how did they get my cell number. This is what the message says apparently:

''Because of your excellent credit you've won a prize! Press 1 to claim your prize''


This is where I found the info.

401-889-9876

wierd

Mozilla Creates a Viral Video to Promote Firefox

It's pretty over the top, but I guess that's the point. Make sure you check out the statistics they have scolling across the bottom of the video.


Here's a couple of the stats:

Compared to Internet Explorer, Firefox users are

14% less likely to have sleeping disorders
67% more likely to go mountain biking
60% more likely to drink microbrew beer
45% more likely to have gone on a date
16% less likely to have fungal infections

I'm not sure where they came up with stats, but I can't image Microsoft is laughing too hard.

Wikia Search Alpha Goes Live Today

From e-Life

Wikia Search is the new user-based, or social search engine. The brain child of Wikimedia Foundation's founder and CEO Jimmy Wales.

Wales admits that comparing Wikia Search on day one to Google is not possible. Here's what he said on Tech Crunch:

"(Wikia Search) is a project to *build* a search engine, not a search engine... So the comparison to Google on day one is just mistaken. Google didn't launch a project to build a human-powered search engine, they launched an algorithmic search engine with a clever new idea. So they didn't have to wait for the humans to come in and start building it. We aren't even running with a real index yet, just a placeholder index. Yeah, the search sucks today. But that's not the point. The point is that we are building something different."

Will it be a Google killer? Certainly not for sometime. The whole concept is that people will be driving how the search engine works. That takes time. The project is said to be based on the following four principles (from the about Wikia Search page:

Our Four Organizing Principles (TCQP) - the future of Internet Search must be based on:

1. Transparency - Openness in how the systems and algorithms operate, both in the form of open source licenses and open content + APIs.
2. Community - Everyone is able to contribute in some way (as individuals or entire organizations), strong social and community focus.
3. Quality - Significantly improve the relevancy and accuracy of search results and the searching experience.
4. Privacy - Must be protected, do not store or transmit any identifying data."
   

I'll have to be honest I'm not exactly sure how giving people the ability to edit and create entries that will be displayed when you search for something is going to make "search" better. It does sound like there is a big chance for manipulation. All the talk is about Google’s strangle hold on the search industry, and that they use ever changing algorithms to produce their results, and getting the general public involved is the way to make this better. Actually Google also has a human side to it'S results. A fact seemingly not known to many. At Google they call them Quality Raters. The Quality Raters are paid telecommuters (meaning the work from home) that spend their time rating how well the search queries match up to the results that the algorithms are producing, including whether or not someone is trying to manipulate the algorithms for their own use. So, in that way they also have human controls to improve the quality of their search.

It will be interesting to see how the quality will be controlled with Wikia Search. Although Wikepedia is smashing hit and I believe that collaboration is the wave of the future. It is true that just because something is a product of the masses, doesn't always mean it is good. I guess time will tell...

Search: Turtle Tacos

Some of you may remember my post about Turtle Tacos - Nov. 12 2006

Saturday night or I should I say Sunday morning after 2am. I was woken up by a some maniac girl yelling something about Turtle Tacos! It seems that they are a delicacy up at Penn State. But just a warning. You will be charged extra for them....

Apparently they have recently become popular again. I have software that tells me how people find site and people have been searching for Turtle Tacos and guess what, my blog comes up at number 1! Check out the link.

For Everyone Who Had a Bit of Trouble on New Year's Eve

Need A Localization Expert???

Getting the wrong translation can be embarrassing.

A parking sign in China with what should be "Fee Park", translated as "Pee Park". Bet they wish they hired a Localization/Translation expert now...

Blackbird e-Solutions Localization Consulting

From: e-Life