From today’s http://boortz.com/nuze/index.html

“YOUR FRIENDLY GLOBAL WARMING UPDATE!

Global warming fanatics, you’re going to absolutely LOVE this story First .. here’s a column from Bill Steigerwald of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Steigerwald writes about Anthony Watts of Chico, California. Watts is a former TV meteorologist. Watts did what Al Gore (or our lovely Belinda, for that matter) never did … he started searching out and looking at some of the 1,221 weather stations that the federal government uses to gather data on temperatures. That data, of course, is then used to tell us of the threat of global warming! Government standards say that these temperature measuring stations should be 100 feet from buildings, not on a hot concrete service, and so forth. Well, it would seem that these regulations aren’t exactly being adhered to.

Believe it or not, Steigerwald and his followers have found temperature measuring stations sitting right next to barrels where trash is burned. Some are sitting directly in front of air conditioning vents. Others are located near the tarmac on parking lots and at airports. Still others are found surrounded by high buildings. Believe it or not, he even found one official temperature measuring station sitting directly behind an airport ramp where it can be routinely subject to jet blast! Just what do you think the locations of these official government temperature measuring stations might mean to all of these temperature measurements that are being used by OwlGore and others to convince us of global warming!

Now for the fun. Pictures! Watts has a website where he’s detailing his findings. The site has been so slammed lately that he has had to go in search of a new server. The address is http://www.surfacestations.org. Give it a try .. if he still doesn’t have a new server up and running you can get some rather amazing pictures, along with accompanying graphs, on his blog. Here’s your link.”

The name of Twitter was just begging to be ‘tongue twisted’. So I put one together real quick and sent it to my twitter feed. Well, I really don’t have anyone subscribing to my twitter feed being that I’m new to this and all. So I want to capture my twitter twister here in my blog, before it disappears from view.

If 2 twitters typing txt tell 20 techs to trade tongue twisters. How many twit txts til’ titillating twisted typos taunt twitter’s traffic?

- Tim

I’ve been hearing about Twitter for a while now. However just like when blogging became the thing to do, I battled in my mind concerning the relevance of it. Why do I need it? Well that can actually be said about alot of things that now are considered essential these days.

Why do I need email?
Why do I need a cell phone?
Why do I need ________ ? (fill in the blank)

So right now, I’m not sure of the use or relevance of Twitter, just as I’m not so sure of the relevance of Facebook.

I’ll use it for awhile, and it will either become a useful tool or it will become obsolete, at least by me. In the meantime, you can see any of my status updates that I provide to Twitter in the sidebar and/or in Facebook. You can also read my updates directly at http://twitter.com/1time . – Tim

I’ve been a member of Linked In for several years, but yesterday I also signed up for FaceBook.
Facebook seemed to be a little bit more social than Linked In, but seemed to fit me better than MySpace would. Somehow it seems that Facebook might be more ‘middle of the road’ compared to the target audience of the other two.

So I’ve setup my page and stuff and so far I like the features. I’ve setup a rss feed from my blog, and from my Flickr pictures. Heike has signed up as well.

So if any of you join or already on it, then look for us. I don’t think you can view any members pages until you register for FaceBook.

Tim

I’ve been behind on posting to this blog, to the dismay of my huge audience …. crickets chirping … ahem.

But in case anyone ever chances upon this page, let me provide a few updates.

I’m always searching for new Internet stuff … sites, and such. Especially ‘stuff’ that helps brings a bit of Germany to my wife.

My latest find is http://zattoo.com . Combined with http://swissvpn.net (to obtain a Swiss IP), it allows my wife to watch live, streaming German programming in the USA. She can watch ZDF, ARD, Prosieben, Sat1, RTL, ORF, etc.

Believe it or not, we rarely have used the service though, primarily due to the time difference. If there were a way for us to record certain shows that she liked it might be better. And there is probably some ad-hoc way to do that.

Also, I just read an article today about http://lala.com in the WSJ. This service is free (no monthly subscription like Rhapsody or Yahoo Music) and permits you to listen to load of music for free from any computer. However if you would like to carry it on your ipod or mp3 player (yes, you can use it on your ipod) you must purchase the album (no singles, at least not now). The founder of this venture is hoping that people will purchase music for their players that they grow to like.

An update on Second Life, since I’ve posted here several times concerning my interest in it. My experience is this. When you first join and it’s new, it is addictive. But after you’ve purchased land, built stuff, decorated your virtual home and property you sort of are left with the feeling of … “okay, what now?”.

I’m sure there are some networking opportunities, and I’m still keeping my free account and periodically keeping up with the advancements and what new businesses are entering Second Life. My wife and I had 2 pieces of land and we sold 1, we will probably sell the other one soon as well. Right now, the 2D Web and Googling are just so much more efficient for research and information, and less intrusive. You don’t have to worry about avatars dropping in for a chat while you’re researching topics. We do periodically visit Second Life to visit with Heike’s Mom, but our time spent there is very minimal now compared to when we first learned about it.

Tim