Founder of MDF Media and Matt Fowler Network
My website said:
“Goodbye, old out dated browsers!”
And just like that, my website only looks amazing on updated browsers.
Have to admit, it looks pretty sweet on old browsers. (Check it out on IE 6 sometime) Sarcasm or course — as it very nicely wrecks & ignores the design.
This wasn’t a very interesting post, I know. Just wanted to get you in here and look at my design. You know I do this every year.
How about a constellation prize:
We get it, okay? You want us to believe that your life is way more glamorous than it actually is.
You also love sharing 100+ selfies of you and your “fam”.
Heck, why not show me that disgusting looking meal you shoved down your pie hole. Oh you put it on Instagram too? I was hoping you slapped a filter on it to make it “artsy”.
Wow, you are right. I haven’t seen enough pictures of your baby. Today. Please post more. I love hearing about how junior acted his age today.
You see, Grandpa Baby was tired of crawling and decided to ask his friend Bones for a lift.
Bones, being the quiet type, dropped his jaw and lowered his right hand to the floor.
The rest, is history.
A call for help: Which is the best live streaming service to use these days?
A long time ago, I used Justin.TV — It was simple, free, and easy to use. However, that service shut down. Kind of left me stranded. Any suggestions?
Here is what is ideal:
Check out my contact page or drop me a suggestion on twitter.
Thanks!
And never comes back.
How many times have we seen a post start out with that title? A lot, I know. Overplayed, yes. However, extremely relevant. You might have noticed that this site looks completely different. Or, you may be here from some weird search engine result and have no idea who I am or what this place is. Hopefully, you newbie you, are saying to yourself “Damn, that’s a mighty fine looking website!”
Apparently, the days of having colorful backgrounds and flashy images are over. The people have spoken, and I’ve listened. You like it bland, flat, and fast. This new design is my answer. Loyal readers will know that this place has seen one too many facelifts, as I tend to get bored with one design and go onto another.
This time I had speed in mind. That’s also why there is no longer that dreadful “/life/” redirect mumbo jumbo. You may have not even noticed it, but I did — point being: it’s gone. I’ve also focused a lot on the mobile version of my site. I couldn’t believe the numbers when I saw that a good 47% of you are looking at my site on a smartphone, tablet, or other mobile device. (Other mobile device? Like a Grandpas’ phone? Yes. One of those.)
This seemed to be the easiest transition from one location to another, but there may be some broken links that I missed. I apologize in advance, and ask you shoot me a message and let me know — I’ll get it straightened out ASAP. I hate leftovers.
You might also notice that there is HTML5 and CSS3 everywhere. You’re welcome. Again, speed was key. Even though I’m leaving old browsers out of the picture, most of you should have a great time here.
There is definitely more to come to this site later (Like sliders — and app reviews) but it didn’t feel right slapping a new design on here and not doing my ever traditional “DID YA NOTICE??” post.
Now, to find a nice image for this post… Ooh, I just had a great idea for one. Props for the people who get the reference.
He played the best. Chose that college career and the safe way in the game of life.
Mrrrhrrmm mrmrmmmr…hrrmm
This doesn’t make any sense to me. This is the dialog box I get when I click on links. Why is NFL Mobile an option?
Well, I went ahead and tried it for shits and giggles. Verizon wanted me to subscribe for the service, and since I’m not a huge football fan (except around super bowl times), I declined.
I’ll never know what could have happened. I know one thing for sure: I probably wouldn’t have been able to read why choosing a tricked out iMac over a Mac Pro is a better idea.
Still, this seems like an odd bug… but a humorous one none the less. Does the NFL Mobile app open links within the app maybe? My football fans can fill me in on a later date. In the meantime, I’ll stick with normal non-footbally apps.
Hey, I haven’t posted in awhile and I am sorry for that. So… Here we go:
I wanted to share this somewhere like Twitter or Facebook, but it’s just too damn huge for all that. Ain’t nobody got time for dat on their feed. So I decided to post it on my site. It’s from MemeCenter (at least that is where I got it) — I’m sure it’s all over the internet. Enjoy:
I NEED to do more things on here than I do.
I see something like this and it reminds me of how badly I need to stop drinking soda. It’s just so damn tasty. I’m shocked to see how much there is in a little thing of milk.
I drink 2 gallons a week…
Maybe I’ll at least cut back.
I have no clue what this has to do with Valentines Day, but it’s funny and I ‘m using it as a Valentines Greeting.
Maybe because the statue resembles Cupid? I don’t know, just enjoy it.
If you’ve followed my blog, or any of my social networks, for any length of time then you’ll know my feelings toward the cable network owned by Comcast, known as G4. To summarize, in 2004 Comcast purchased the 24-hour technology cable TV network TechTV, then owned by Vulcan Ventures, and promptly dismantled it. Focusing more on pop culture and less about technology, they dumped nearly all the talent from that network and canceled several of the veteran shows. They moved production to Los Angeles, and renamed one it’s most popular shows, The Screen Savers, to Attack of the Show.
Recently, Esquire acquired G4. That is irony at its finest.
With all that being said, my feelings for G4 have been all negative up until this point. Attack of the Show had it’s series finale, and invited two special guests to cameo in this classy sign off:
Now, I think that is a great way to end an era.
I cannot believe it has taken me this long to find this picture.
With the possibility of a world ending, the inauguration of a president, and soft-core cable porn still in bloom — it’s nice to see everyone is still alive and kicking. I’ve started a new job (technically I did last year) and I’ve been extremely busy. I promise to start updating this site a lot more. I’ll even live stream sometime soon and reconnect with you. Follow me on instagram. I have nothing more to say for right now.
We made it another year. Whew.
The World Didn’t End, just like we knew it wouldn’t. Or, maybe it did end — and the internet kept on trucking.
I’m going with it didn’t end.
I’m pretty sure these answers wouldn’t be caught dead in the original Family Feud.
It’s still pretty funny.
I can dream can’t I?
Roseanne Barr 2012
When you don’t care for the Republican or Democratic candidate — you vote Roseanne.
Even though “Droid” is a model name, not an operating system (cough it’s Android people! cough), it’s still clever.
For $1.99 (or maybe cheaper?) you can enjoy the wonderful flavors of Wild Boar, Alligator, Kangaroo, Venison, Buffalo, Ostrich, and Duck all in a spicy “meat” stick.
I can understand Venison and Buffalo… but I can’t really figure out why anyone would want to enjoy a meaty Kangaroo stick. No pun intended.
Alligator tail –to me– is terrible… but some people do enjoy it. It’s not even guaranteed that the tail is what you are eating with these jerky sticks.
My experience with an Ostrich ‘burger’ was very dry and tasteless. Or maybe that was an Emu burger I ate. Still, it was terrible.
I also didn’t even know you could eat Kangaroo. Shows what I know.
I’m waiting for these to come out in snake and rabbit next.
I just can’t see these being a hot seller, but you never know.
©Matt Fowler
Following today’s Apple Keynote, their music social network (called Ping) experiment silently received a death notice. However, most people didn’t even know about the social network in the first place.
Before we get into why this never worked, let’s detail exactly how we knew it came to an end. Apple announced an abundance of new gizmos, including the iPhone 5 and a new iPod Nano & Touch. Another huge announcement was the new re-imagined design of iTunes.
Tech Pundits quickly picked up from live blog screenshots that the new version of iTunes did not have the word Ping anywhere on it. This came with little surprise, as Ping had received what I call the “Buzz” effect.
To explain this effect in further detail, I’m relating this to Google’s first social experiment, called Google Buzz. Once Google allowed users to feed their twitter posts into Buzz, that was all users ever did. Myself included. I never saw a reason to actually visit Buzz’s website, even though their was a comment system there, and you could actually post original content into it. It seemed easier to just feed my tweets into Buzz and allow my followers to comment or “like” posts on there. This worked well for awhile, but it eventually became nothing but another twitter feed.
This is ultimately why Google shut down Buzz. This same effect happened with Ping. Users (mostly musicians — as it was supposed to be a music social network) simply re-pumped their tweets into Ping and that was that.
Also, the most important reason Ping failed was because nobody had any clue it existed. This was because of a disagreement between Apple and Facebook. Since the Mountain Lion release, and the latest version of iOS, Apple and Facebook have since patched things up — but all too late.
In theory, the idea of seeing what your buddies (or favorite celebrities) bought on iTunes was a great idea. But, you HAD to be in iTunes to see it. If Apple had made connections early on with Facebook to allow for “frictionless sharing” — then the network could have possibly survived.
However, CEO of Apple Tim Cook is quoted saying “We tried Ping, and I think the customer voted and said ‘This isn’t something that I want to put a lot of energy into.’“
So it’s a possibility that even if Facebook had allowed for this sharing early on, Apple still would be dumping it on the 30th.
It started in September 2010 and will be put to rest on September 30th, 2012.
Some users are generally worried about their data they have posted on Ping, and whether or not they’ll be able to retrieve it once the service does shut down. I’m sure Apple will have some sort of an export option, but I can’t think of very much important information that I’ve run across on Ping, let alone anything worthwhile that I’ve posted.
Apple has already killed all known links to the service from their site. Also, if you try to sign up for an account (why on Earth you’d want to I’ll never know) you’ll see this message:
How many times have you seen on the right hand side of the page “Jane Doe (your friend – in this example) likes Pepsi” – or Verizon Wireless? The company or product doesn’t really matter, because if you haven’t changed your privacy settings, it’s targeting your friends with your identity whether you like it or not.
Now, even in mid stream of your wall, you’ll see a post (typically a photo – but not always) that a certain company page has made (in this example we’ll use Red Stripe Beer) and says Friend X and 3 others like Red Stripe Beer. Then it gives you a nice little option to like them (because if you are seeing this – chances are you don’t already “like” that page.
This is a real sneaky scheme that Facebook started awhile back, and snuck it into our privacy settings automatically and thus forcing users to opt-out manually, instead of doing the ethical thing and asking if this is what we’d like to do.
I’ve been on Facebook since 2007, and I feel that as a veteran member – I know it sounds cocky – I expect a little better treatment. It’s bad enough they sneak these kinds of things in with new users, but some of us have been “around the block” so to speak and we’d like a little bit more respect. Or at least like a little bit of royalties in return, but – we did agree to the TOS when we signed up – and that’s what they would argue if you took them to court.
However, there’s a shiny golden idol in the dark thicket. Also known as a real easy way to disable this annoyance – once you know the steps. Facebook is most likely counting on the common user to not dig this deep into the privacy settings.
Unless you like the idea of Facebook using your name for profit, follow along below:
They claim these facts on their Ads with Friends:
But I’m not buying a bit of it. I feel if you share my name with even my friends that I “Like” a product – shows a false sense of interest. Even if I liked the page, doesn’t necessarily mean I support it. I know it sounds ignorant, but just because I liked Charmin Toilet Paper doesn’t mean that’s what I use. Get what I’m saying?
That’s all I’ve got for now friends.
Relevant targeted Ads — MY ASS!
iTunes has become the go-to place for Podcasts, and is the primary source for most people’s subscriptions. However, syncing them with your iOS devices has been, if nothing else, trivial and a little wonky. This would leave people with podcast fatigue. In other words, people would stop listening to a show because it was way too much of a hassle to have to download them on your computer, then wait 20 to 30 minutes (if not longer) for them all to sync to your iPhone, iPod, or iPad.
I’m assuming Apple has finally heard our war cry on this matter because on June 26th, 2012 — Apple finally released a Podcast App for most of their iOS devices. It wouldn’t be Apple if they didn’t leave some of their older devices in the dust. 
Here is what Apple has to say about the App:
Podcasts app is the easiest way to discover, subscribe to, and play your favorite podcasts on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Explore hundreds of thousands of free audio and video podcasts from the Podcasts Catalog, and play the most popular podcasts, organized for you by topic, with the all-new Top Stations feature.
Features:
• Enjoy all of your audio and video podcasts in a single app
• Explore hundreds of thousands of podcasts including shows in over 40 languages
• Try the innovative new Top Stations feature to find new podcast series in a variety of topics, including arts, business, comedy, music, news, sports, and more.
• Browse by audio or video podcasts, or see what’s most popular in Top Charts
• Tap Subscribe for your favorites and automatically receive new episodes for free as they become available
• Stream episodes or download to listen while offline
• Skip forward and back using simple playback controls
• Turn on Sleep Timer to automatically stop playing a podcast while listening in bed
• Share your favorite episodes with friends using Twitter, Messages, and Mail
• Optionally sync your favorite episodes from iTunes on your Mac or PC
• Sync your episode playback for seamless transition between devicesRequirements:
• Requires a device with iOS 5.1 or later
• Optionally syncing episodes requires iTunes 10.6.3 or later
• Streaming or downloading episodes requires Internet access over a Wi-Fi or cellular data connection
Without any warning, Apple released this App, and some cover art may be a little distorted until every Podcast producer gets around to changing their cover art to the required 1400 x 1400 resolution Apple now requires in their Podcast Creator instructions.
Of course, there have been plenty of alternatives for Podcast consumption rather than iTunes. I recommend Instacast or Downcast.
Easter Egg: Click the album art while listening to a Podcast to see a nostalgic (and sadly retro) tape deck player!
This isn’t exactly a new service, by any means, but I don’t think it’s gained nearly as much traction as needed.
Google Music (now known as Google Play Music) is a free service provided by our friends at Google that allows you to upload 20,000 songs to the cloud — and stream them anywhere on your Android or iOS device. All of this can be done — completely free!
If you are that select few that has more than 20,000 songs, additional storage can be purchased. But, let’s face it, most of us don’t have that many songs — so this really is a great deal.
Also, the uploading couldn’t be more simple. All you need to do is download Google Music Manager (available for Windows & Mac), which allows you to upload your entire iTunes or Windows Media Player library in the background — with little to no intervention needed on your part. Plus, you can set it up to where new tracks added to your library are automatically uploaded to Google Music.
That’s frictionless sharing if I’ve ever heard of it!
Even if you don’t like the idea of streaming your music to your device (maybe because of bandwidth restraints) you should at least look into Google Music as a great backup resource. And you really can’t beat the price.
All of these services Google started offering really makes sense, especially after the release of the Nexus Q and Nexus 7.
Let me know what you think in the comments, or get at it me on Twitter.
Paul Reubens (better known as PeeWee Herman) stopped by Late Night with Jimmy Fallon to give a little bit of a twist on “The Dark Knight Rises” trailer.
In other words, it’s the trailer we all know and love — only with PeeWee Herman’s voice. What’s not to love about that?
What makes me crack up the most on this? Morgan Freeman’s part. The PeeWee voice change just does something to my funny bone.
The Dark Knight Rises releases at midnight on July 20th 2012. GO SEE IT!
If you saw my last post, then this will make total sense. If you didn’t, then here it goes: This is based off of a video by Skifcha. It’s not quite as long as the 5 hours of Hipster Cat we saw last time, but it’s just a good.
Once again, I’m not a huge dubstep listener, but the video is what makes this great — not the music.
There has been a trend for awhile to take videos that are hilarious or maybe even annoying — and replay them for hours at a time. This is one of those, only it’s a whopping 5 hours. If you can last that long, you are more man than I.
My Opinion: I love it. I can’t say I’ve made it the full 5 hours, but pretty close. The music isn’t the greatest in the world, but that cat’s faces are what get me every time.
Here is another one of those videos… It’s called Dubstep Hipster Cat. It’s made by Skifcha.
View the original here: http://vimeo.com/36820781
Now, I’m sure most of you are thinking: “Well, I DON’T trust anything on the internet!” And good for you, because most people don’t.
However, there are a few people out there that rely on the internet for reviews of either restaurants, apartments, or any other product. It isn’t abnormal to look up the reviews. After all, if you are planning on spending your hard earned cash on something — shouldn’t you at least get your money’s worth?
I even fall a victim to customer reviews sometimes, especially on websites such as Amazon or Newegg. If a product has a higher percentage of negative reviews rather than positive, I’m least likely to purchase it. EBay is another website where customer feedback is important. If your profile has a large percentage of negative feedback on your profile, you are definitely least likely to make a sale.
But what about Yelp? Do we really trust Yelp? And should we? There has always been this conspiracy theory that reviews are bought rather than thought. In other words, people pay a decent amount of money for people with a trustworthy account to post positive reviews for their product. In some circumstances — they even pay for people to write nasty reviews for their competitors.
But, honestly, how do you market a job like this? And what kind of classifieds AD company would even allow this type posting? Hmm.. Maybe Craigslist?
I ran across this today while searching around the Los Angeles Craigslist:
Wow.. For a measly $20 of your own time you can write reviews for someone. Notice: They don’t say what kind of review nor for who/whom. Guess now it makes sense as to why I italicized the word “decent” up above. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not dismissing the idea that everybody could use $20 here and there — I mean every bit helps right? But do you really want to earn it by lying?
I’ve blurred out the email address because I believe this is a disgrace to the open internet. We know it’s been happening, but this finally cuts the cake to the core. If cakes had a core, that is.
Look At The Positives: I guess this company could be paying you to go visit the restaurant or venue and see if you actually enjoyed yourself or not… But that’s highly doubtful.
What do you think?
You have to love Demo Fails. Every company has them, and they only get funnier each time.
Many of you know already that on Monday, June 18th 2012, Microsoft announced that they were entering the tablet hardware department with Microsoft Surface. But that’s not really what I’m here to talk about.
It wouldn’t be a Microsoft product without a few bugs, crashes, or fatal errors. The poor guys couldn’t even make it through an announcement Keynote without a “FAIL” via Internet Explorer. This video is going viral, with nearly 2.5 million views in a matter of days.
I’ll give Windows President, Steven Sinofsky, some credit. He handled it like a pro. Though his voice shutters a little bit, and you can see him repeatedly pressing the Windows (home) button trying to escape this conundrum, he prevails and changes the subject. This wasn’t the only “fail” at the keynote. The other, though more subtle than this one, could have been as extreme as an App crash or something less severe as in someone forgetting to have the login credentials preloaded. When trying to show off the Netflix app, he simply says “…Oops” and grabs another tablet from underneath a nearby table. Whew, good save.
This does set Microsoft back about 15 years, when another fatal crash is remembered during the Windows 98 launch, where the Blue Screen of Death rears its ugly head right in the middle of a demo for “Plug and Play” Bill Gates smiles and very smoothly says “That must be why we’re not shipping Windows 98 Yet”
Check it out:
The internet is a very social place, we all know this much to be true. What we don’t know, even though we think sometimes we do, is how powerful social networking can really be. You would think, someone like me, who tweets as much as I do, would have put two of the most popular websites that I run (Brick Hill Publishing & Unfettered Ministry) on this social ecosystem by now.
I am referring mainly to twitter, because Brick Hill Publishing already has all of it’s books on Facebook, but I (for some odd reason) never bothered with twitter. Unfettered Ministry, on the other hand, doesn’t have a Facebook page, but certainly has a twitter account. I started the account in early 2010, but for some reason never followed through with it. My guess is that I forgot about it, or forgot the password, or an equal share of both of those excuses.
Whatever the reason may be, I’ve fixed it. They are both on the twittersphere full time now, so I employ you to follow them for book & author updates or religious articles on everyday life.
Without further ado, I give you Brick Hill Publishing & Unfettered Ministry on twitter. (click either one of them!)
You might have noticed my last post, where I talked about “Twitter Hating Me”. I didn’t mean that they actually had a grudge against me, but that post received a lot of feedback — most of it positive — and left people wanting to know what ever happened with my account. After about six hours of patient waiting, my account was restored. During the wait I saw the “This account is suspended 404 error” and the “The page no longer exists 404 error”.
It made me nervous, because I’ve never been suspended before, so twitter received more than enough emails from me. And, as you could tell, I received the same canned response from them everytime. So, with all that pressure I hope that Twitter really doesn’t hate me, because I have no problem with them.
I just wish they would alter their automatic spam filtering just a little bit. Mainly because I’ve had a twitter account for what seems like forever and I’ve never once triggered a red flag. I never did get an answer as to why it happened. Your assumption is as good as mine.
As my dear ol’ Grandpa would say, it’s water under the bridge now. And he’s right. My account is fully restored and superbly operational.
I originally posted this on Google Plus. However, I feel my blog readers should have some insight as well.
I’ve been suspended on Twitter. This has never happened before.. Honestly, I find it kind of funny.
Twitter thought my account was “Spamming” because I was posting so much about Apple stuff under the hashtag #WWDC . At least that is my assumption of why I was suspended — because I sure as hell can’t get an answer from anyone.
I’ve contacted them to restore the account, and received multiple canned responses that say the following:
——————————–
Hello,Twitter has automated systems that find and remove multiple automated spam accounts in bulk. Unfortunately, it looks like your account got caught up in one of these spam groups by mistake.
I’ve restored your account; sorry for the inconvenience.
Please note that it may take an hour or so for your follower and following numbers to return to normal.
Thanks,
Support
——————————–
Well, it’s been way over an hour and my account is still suspended. Sometimes it shows up that it doesn’t even exist.I can’t get a human to answer me, so I just keep getting these canned responses. If someone on here happens to work at twitter, can you look into this a little bit for me?
I do this every year with big keynote announcements. Never once have I been flagged as spam. Did somebody report me? I’ll never know because a robot handles all the requests!
I had at one time talked to a “Buster” at twitter about some unrelated issues. (You can read about them on the Google Plus thread comments — no sense in reposting them here) He/She was unable to help me with my request, but it still gave me reason to believe that Twitter had some humans available to handle their support.
I understand that suspended account restoration requests are something that Twitter probably receives on an hourly basis, but when an account is falsely subjected as a spam account, there should be an honest human being to come out and say “Sorry, We Fudged Up” Hopefully, I’ll start tweeting again soon.
Hell, I’d talk to fail whale if I knew it would get me somewhere. This is ridiculous.
It is also a little tedious at the hoops you have to jump through just to get a canned response. Once you submit your support ticket to twitter, you receive an email that gives a very bland explanation of what they think the solution is to the problem. You Must REPLY to this email to even receive consideration of a canned response or maybe a human response.
Once you have sent a simple “Yes, I still want support” reply back. You wait. If you receive a canned response, you won’t be able to reply to it. If you try, you get an email saying that you’ve replied to a closed ticket. Gee, thanks. I didn’t even get the chance to say Thank You, Fuck You, or Have a Good day.
If you somehow receive an email from a human, you are able to respond freely, but in about 2 hours or so the ticket will be closed. Then you get yet another email asking you to rate your support. Wow, you are putting yourself on the line there.
With the announcement of Microsoft Photosynth finally coming to Windows Phone, it bears some notice that I should have covered this earlier. My deepest apologies. I’m covering it now.
Now, what exactly is Microsoft Photosynth you are asking? Well, the folks at Richmond cooked up this little application that allows users to stitch together high quality images into a virtual panoramic image. As an example, here is what this wonderful program can do:
(You’ll need Microsoft Silverlight to view this)
Please: Do yourself a favorite and hit the full screen option. You won’t hurt my feelings. Zoom in a little, or click the examples on the right to targeted locations. The amount of detail you can put into these panoramic shots is incredible.
Now the Windows Phone users can enjoy this functionality just as much as everyone else. Well, at least most of you can. There are reports that some Windows Phones are not being supported. Bummer!
Let me know what you think!
Posted from Matt Fowler’s Posterous
This is Grandpa Baby.
He is currently looking for a wife. A Mrs. Grandma if you will.
He goes on many adventures. But don’t cross him.
Postedfrom Matt Fowler’s Posterous
Posted from Matt Fowler’s Posterous
I was trying to record a song I heard playing, so I could identify it later on. However, the song ended right as soon as I started recording. If you have any ideas what the name of this song is — please let me know! Thanks
Posted from Matt Fowler’s Posterous
First we got SamWell, Mario’s Brother.
That makes me think of something…
Oops, the button fell off.
Wee snaw. Wee snaw.
One day, my friends, this will be a reality. I guess my only wish is that they are a little bit stylish.
I mean, what did he have against the world?
He eventually left his stoop and chased after a fat kid with a silly blue hat.
Posted from Matt Fowler’s Posterous
Apple announced the new iPad on March 7th. They aren’t calling it the iPad 3, and they aren’t calling it iPad HD. It’s just the new iPad. That’s it. Honestly, it’s a smart move. At least this way they aren’t starting to sound like a Rocky sequel.
I’ve watched the keynote and read the blogs. I’ve also scoured Apple’s website. I had some predictions, so let’s go into detail on what they were and what I predicted wrong & what I predicted right.
They also announced a new Apple TV for the same price of $99, with support of videos at 1080p resolution. But, we don’t care about that when they shove a new iPad in our faces.
Whatcha make of it? I like it.
The big talk of the day is Apple’s Keynote set to happen early this morning in San Francisco. Will they announce the next version of the iPad? Another iPhone? Nobody knows, and Apple likes it that way. With all the click bait articles out there, you would think Apple was completely open about their products, but we all know they are not.
I’ll be following the event from home via live blogs and watching my favorite geniuses cover the event over at TWiT. One of these days I’ll make it to an Apple event, but that is in the future. And I usually only live three days in advance.
To honor the event, I have a few predictions. I do not think they will announce a new iPhone, at least not now. I see them waiting to do that around WWDC. The last two iPads have been announced at the same place they are holding this event today, so it only makes sense that they would announce the iPad 3 (or whatever name they decide on) here.
Finally, here are my predictions:
There you have it. We’ll see what happens! Maybe one of these days Apple will start live streaming their events so everybody can join in.
*The image at the top of this post is the invitation they sent out to “select” people.
If you follow my audioboo posts, then you would have known that I’ve been itching for a new design. I’ve kept my tradition going of a re design each new year, and here we are.
After doing vast research, I’ve noticed that the days of bloated/fat sites are out. We are back to simple, yet elegant looking sites. We want information fast, and we want it to look nice.
This new design is a work in progress, of course, as it always is. Things will come and go. Enjoy the ride!
Let me know what you think in the comments.
This is what people say is the love of fabric …it is the wolf
Or is it something else?
The one and only
Posted from Matt Fowler’s Posterous
(Great) Horned Owl
Courtesy of the Renaissance Festival
Every year I try to perform a complete makeover (or redesign) of my site, and this year I am seeking your suggestions.
Phoenix Suns vs Houston Rockets
These little devils look soft, but don’t be fooled…
Just ignore the fact that there is a lawn mower in the background, and we’ll be good.
As always, you can click this image (along with the others on my site) to view the full image.
I made this
I just spent the last 30 minutes reorganizing and updating links. Why? Because I finally made the (hugely suggested) jump and changed my twitter handle. Since I first joined twitter I’ve been using the ID m477h3w. Which stands for “Matthew” in l33t speak. I don’t feel like explaining what that is, so please Google it if you are confused.
I have been told by multiple people that the name was too hard to find, or too easily forgettable. I shrugged it off because I liked it. It was unique. However, I’ve noticed a very slow growth in followers, so perhaps they were right.
That is why I introduce the new twitter ID: http://twitter.com/mattdfowler
All I did was changed the username, so my current followers will still remain, along with my tweets. But you know how all that goes. I didn’t realize how many Matt Fowler’s there are in this world, and it took quite a bit of time to even find a handle that I liked.
The biggest headache was updating all the stinking links I had to m477h3w. Also, in a matter of vanity, I went ahead and re-registered m477h3w — just so nobody can try and pose as me. It will forever have that one tweet that says “Hey, you are in an out dated spot” — along with a Tomato avatar for fun.
The second headache came from Twitter being a little confused. But, they did warn me it would take 24 hours for everything to take effect — so I’ll give them that. I appreciate the fact that you can change your username on a whim like that, rather than having to re-register and lose all of your important information.
So, without further adieu, please update any links you may have.
Just when I thought the Google Plus Secret Santa was done and over with for the year, I receive a package in the mail.
How sweet!
Haven’t recorded a video with SocialCam in awhile. I figured it was about time I let them know I am still alive and kicking. Just a test video here, nothing special. I’m sure my followers/viewers get tired of my test videos, but it’s all about Trial & Error baby!
In case you missed Microsoft’s LAST Keynote at CES yesterday, here is the video that started the evening. It, honestly, is the most exciting thing that happened at the Keynote. Ryan Seacrest and Steve Ballmer were dangerously awkward the entire time, and don’t even get me started on the “Tweet Choir”
Although it went on entirely too long, this video is catchy (I suppose) and a desperate attempt to cling to the younger audience. Of course, auto tune is included free of charge. Never saw that one coming.
It sums up the last 15 Years of Keynotes at CES with Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer in just under 120 seconds (2 Minutes)
Can anybody shed some light as to why they are calling it the “Pogo” remix though?
And he is a shit head. But a good dog none the less
Its a warning i dont know what it means
Shared via Google Currents
Testing the share feature!
Neat article though.
Mashable: 10 Best Spoof Twitter Accounts of 2011 http://goo.gl/mag/G7eg9
Is it dead? Or do people straight up not care anymore? I’ve put together this little image for fun. 
The For Your Health pays a tribute to Dr. Steve Brule.
And a very Merry Christmas!!
What kind of letter could this be? Could it be a Christmas letter? I think so.
Merry Christmas ONE AND ALL. Even if you don’t celebrate Christmas for whatever reason, I want you to have a joyous day and an even better afternoon. But wait, doesn’t that offend people now a days? You know what, I don’t care.
It has been a tradition to celebrate this day since birth, and whether you believe in God or Jesus Christ or not I do and that’s all that matters. Sure, it’s not actually his birthday — says the historians — but I will celebrate that it is all the same.
I am tired of people saying that it offends them that we say Merry Christmas. The holiday is called Christmas for a reason. Just say Merry Christmas and stop your belly aching.
HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND AN EVEN HAPPIER NEW YEAR! BE SAFE AND MERRY.
DON’T DRINK AND DRIVE, IT’S NOT RECOMMENDED. DUI’S ARE AT A RISE IN THIS COUNTRY AND PROBABLY EVEN OTHER COUNTRIES.
When videos go viral, it’s always a good thing. I’m not arguing that. What I am arguing is how some of them gain the popularity they do. You may think I’m putting this as a complaint to the following videos. But, I’m not. I am actually very glad they received fame so quickly.
In other words, I discovered two interesting videos earlier. One is a lizard and one is a frog. They are both, in a sense, doing the same thing. Smashing Ants. Now, before you say, “WOW, never seen that before” — it’s not the same thing as you would see in the wild.
Only in the 21st century would we have household pets playing with Apps on Smartphones. I assume they are household pets at least. I mean, I would definitely own a bearded dragon. The big African bull frog however, I don’t have anything against, but that just isn’t the pet for me.
First, here is the video that I first saw. It’s the African Bull Frog I mentioned above. Because I’m a nice guy, I’ll warn you now: Don’t have your speakers all the way up. The ending of the video will scare you if you do. It’s not a “Screamer”, I promise this much, but it has a….how do I put it…. volume increase by something that you won’t expect.
Next we have a bearded dragon attempting the same task. YouTube User thanatos454‘s comment was the best for this video, because it is completely true. He/She said “Every time he looks at the camera it strikes me as a search for approval”
If you have a pet you too would like to confuse with this App, you can pick it up here. That is a link for Android Market… I don’t know if it’s available on iPhone or not, and I don’t care.
Nothing less, nothing more
Am I the only one who has noticed that Google loves to give power features to those users who are popular or famous? Before you go all crazy on me, let me explain…
YouTube: This is the first one I feel disgruntled about. Ever heard of the term Partner? Of course you have, and hearing about it is all you will ever do unless you reach a high amount of views and subscribes. I think it would be in Google’s best interest if they allowed anyone to be a Partner. It would make them more money then it would us. So what if our videos were subpar? As long as somebody watched your videos, Google would make money. AND SO WOULD YOU. Hello? Failing Economy? It’s a NO BRAINER!
We would all like to be power users. Google could have a service for everyone called “Temp Partner” where everyone gets to feel the joy of being a YouTube Partner. If you didn’t keep up with your schedule, THEN you would be dropped from being a Partner. Badabing, Badaboom.
Google Plus: If you have a lot of people who have put you in their circles, you receive a plethora of new features as they roll out. The rest of us schoobies have to wait until they’ve been ran through the mud and boasted by big wigs. Screw us small wigs. We aren’t allowed to the party. The big one I’m focusing on is Hangouts On Air. Now Google Plus power users can stream their hangouts to YouTube for the world to see. The rest of us who want to do this have to download software, subscribe to a service, etc. It’s ridiculous how they treat us.
I could go on and on, but I will stop before I blow my stack.
I promised to keep you up to speed with Tim And Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie, so here is another update.
If you were appalled by the Red Band trailer then please check out the iTunes Trailer that is rated R, but it’s more appropriate than the last one. (No F-Bombs)
Check it out here:
http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/timandericsbilliondollarmovie/
Also, as a bonus, Tim & Eric also posted exactly which companies would be showing it On Demand, you can find that out here: http://www.magpictures.com/ondemand/
Here is a trailer sitting all alone
Oh wait its a park
There used to be five
Now there’s six
Which to know
The Settled run
Six wise houses
All in a row
The maiden go
He She They and I
Marlons white win
The silver sun
Finally! The Official Trailer to Men In Black 3 has been released!
We have been waiting for this trailer for ages, and the movie even longer. Watch and enjoy!
First and foremost, I have been trying to find a Chromebook to test for ages. Yes, I realize that if I really want to test out the new “Chrome OS” all I have to do is use Google Chrome. Well, I’m using that now. Check. But I wanted to see this “quick startup” in “8 seconds flat” with my own two eyes. And for the life of me I can’t find one to test. I’ve tried Best Buys all over, along with a lot of other big computer distributor companies, and nobody has a one. They can’t be web only, or are they?
I’d like your input on places to find one. I know Google recommends Tiger Direct, NewEgg, and some other company that escapes me.
If they really are online only, then that is a terrible marketing scheme. A lot of people (hence ME) like to try before you buy. I doubt Google plans on sending me one for a test run, but I’d be much appreciative if they did.
Thanks Google.
This review will start out simply saying Good Grief, Good Grief, GOOOODDD FREEEAAAAKKIINNGG GGRIEF.
That’s putting it nicely. This album is so damn terrible, I can’t even laugh at how terrible it is. Apparently, I’m not alone either. If I was a betting man, I’d bet that 9 out of 10 people think this album is shit on a shit covered plate.
Honestly, I know it’s supposed to be this big “theatrical stage like” experience in an album. Ha! I’d rather go to the Opera Hungover. (And I don’t even get hangovers) I’d rather have 20 sick kittens puke on me then listen to this album from start to finish in it’s entirety.
What in the world was Metallica thinking when they agreed to do an album with this burnout Lou Reed? Sure, he was good in his day, but he sounds just awful on this album. The Music isn’t terrible, I mean it’s nothing fancy, but it does at least sound sortof Metallica-ish.
Lou Reed doesn’t even “sing”. Like he could before, but this time around he didn’t even try. It’s completely spoken. WOW that’s exciting.
Sad thing is, I heard a rumor they were talking about doing another one. PLEASE DON’T. One is bad enough.
However, this new phase going around saying that “Metallica’s new album is TERRIBLE” along with something Megadethy is really getting quite old. This isn’t a new “Metallica” album, it’s a Lou Reed & Metallica Compilation album. Very different folks.
I don’t even have a rating system but I’m about to create one just for this album.
I give it NEGATIVE 13 CORNCOBS OUT OF 3000.
That’s right, my new rating system just for this album is corn cobs. No, it won’t stick — so don’t worry.
The University of China, IL truly is the worst school in America. Babycakes (Why does my spell checker think that word is correctly spelled?) surely says it best.
I remember watching Babycake’s Journal Rants on YouTube, but that isn’t exactly the first way I discovered him. Remember SuperDeluxe? Not many people do. But this isn’t about that, so you’ll have to do some Googling to find out what that was. (I’ll give you a hint, a short-lived internet series that was absorbed by Turner Broadcasting, go figure)
I remember seeing short little commercial breaks on Adult Swim with Babycakes in it, and when I did some research on this character I found a plethora of videos on YouTube with this chubby person. They are all quite hilarious, as Babycakes narrates his Journal entries and they are portrayed in the video. Some hits are the “Booby Bunny” and the “Head Fuckler”
The fact that they made this into a show (again) screams awesome. But the lack of interaction with Babycakes is definitely a drawback. I mean, that’s the whole reason I watch the show anyways. But he is there, and he does have some parts, just not as much as I would like.
Overall, it’s a great show with interesting plot points. You literally never know what they are going to do in this show, and I think that is one of the main reasons I love it so much. A lot of people may be turned off by this kind of humor, but I love it.
Since 1999, most of us have laughed & giggled (isn’t that the same thing–No!) at Seth MacFarlane’s wonderful work, Family Guy.
But, over the years, as the seasons continue — their humor changes dramatically. A Gay joke here, an anti-war pun there, and Brian being completely oblivious that he’s a dog. You know the old schtick. He can talk. Hilarious.
Because I used wonderful, this is obviously a biased post. I love Family Guy, always have, but I will admit that their tune has changed quite a bit since that first pilot back in the late 90’s. The animation is better, but the jokes aren’t. I remember laughing non stop through the episodes. Now I’m lucky to get a couple chuckles in throughout the whole episode.
I have to wonder where the continuation of the Family Guy saga is going to go. Are they going to follow the South Park trend and only focus on current events? Or are they going to actually start taking the characters on extravagant adventures filled with mini-plots with the side characters in between?
The latest episodes have proved that they are still able to get a good episode rolling, but they lack moral fiber. That’s right, I used moral fiber in a sentence. Incorrectly to be exact. Family Guy has never had “moral fiber”. This is the reason they have such a large viewing audience now and that’s fine. But some of the jokes are simply getting old. And fast.
Ok Seth MacFarlane, we get it, you (or somebody very close to you) is a closet homosexual. That’s fine, this is a lot more accepting world. Stop hiding it in your characters. (Stewie, Roger [alien from American Dad])
Oh, lest we forget MacFarlane doesn’t believe in God he’s a proud-to-be athiest. FINE. Stop ruining your shows with these anti-religion jokes. Some of us choose to practice and some of us don’t, it’s our choice so stop trying to be what you set out to destroy.
Where is the direction going to go? That’s the main reason you are even bothering to read all of this. Honestly, I can’t say — that’s obvious. But I have an opinion. They are soon to run out of material, like any show, but I don’t see it happening anytime soon. Not necessarily because the show will get any better or worse, but because the show has such a strong viewing audience. Not to mention, it’s syndicated damn near everywhere now.
I believe that the crew of Family Guy will eventually throw in the towel because they are just plain burnt out on it. Unless Family Guy starts doing more movie parodies (Star Wars) then I’m not sure what else they can do.
Answer the dang question: Basically, I don’t have a freaking clue where Family Guy is going to go. They’ve ran every holiday into the ground, they’ve distorted every race & stereotype known to man.
All I can say is I anticipate where they will go, and will continue to watch every episode and follow every step they take.
As you can tell, though this post had some hatred in it at parts, it also had some love for the show. Keep up the good and sometimes subpar work.
Dictated (in my head, does that count? –no!) , written, and read.
I promised updates, so here is the first official Full Length trailer for Tim & Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie, provided by IGN.
Definitely watch this in HD.
Fair Warning: Trailer is NSFW!
For a reason unknown to me, they are calling it the “Red Band Trailer”. If you have any insight as to why this is, please email me and let me know.
Update: After doing a little bit of research (hello, Google!) I now know what “Red Band” means when it comes to trailers. In lamens terms– it’s a trailer that has been deemed “mature” and “not suitable for a younger audience”. For some reason, I thought this was a special term that Tim & Eric was using, as a gag. But, it’s not. The more you know!
Still doesn’t explain too much of what this movie is going to be about, but it has Romance, Sex, Action, and Violence. That’s enough for me.
Also that a billionaire gives Tim Heidecker & Eric Wareheim 1 Billion dollars to make a movie. This action s portrayed out in Tim & Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie. Confused yet? Good.
Oh, and start using the hashtag #shrim for all your tweets and such.
Don’t forget to tell your Pep Pep!
Earlier today, Eric Wareheim [be careful with that link] (the glasses wearer of the duo Tim & Eric) posted on his twitter account the official Movie poster for Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie. I have to say I am quite excited. To top it all off, an official trailer was also posted.
To preserve the trailer’s greatness, please visit the official Facebook page for the movie. (Watch in HD for the full effect!)
Here are some people who should not see this movie:
I’ll post some more about the movie as it rolls out, but this is the update for now!
snugs.
You think she would at least be able to answer this question…
Enough said….
Toad was always my least favorite character but this one looks particularly happy. Maybe a little bit too happy if you ask me.
Oh well, Game on!
Random drawings are the best…. this one is definitely best illustrated as I Got Mustard On My Beard!!!
(And whatever the blue stuff is supposed to be)
Making boxes was never this much fun….
Stay safe and have fun! Also, try not to eat too much candy!
This was made on my phone, so please excuse the odd handwriting as my finger doesn’t serve as a very good pen.
Magic happens at DeviantArt, there is no doubting that. There is also no escaping the fact that Angry Birds is huge. REALLY huge. They have t-shirts, toys, keychains, thongs (maybe?), among other things.
Indian artist Mohamed Raoof has taken sometime to show us what those little birdies over at Rovio‘s smash hit would look like in real life.
Although he calls them the “Natural” forms of these birds, I liked to look at it in a different way…
(Click on any of these small thumbnails to view the beauties in their full (glorious) size)
You could almost say these birds have been “UnTooned”
Great job, Mohamed. Please visit his gallery and look at these along with many other great creative creations.
Anne Lucht’s amazing 8-Bit visual music video takes the viewers around the town of Düsseldorf, Germany .
The place where electronic music made some huge leaps about 40 years ago with bands like Can, Neu! and Kraftwerk.
All the while these 8-Bit characters are bopping their head’s to Lorenz Rhode’s krautrocky tune TELEPHONE HELICOPTER APPLAUSE GUNSHOT.
This is true talent folks, and some may not understand the true beauty behind it’s 8-Bit wonders.
This is my Uncle’s newly restored 1969 Chevrolet Chevelle. Isn’t it a beauty? This picture looks like it was taken straight out of a magazine!
Nothing too special about this post, other than I wanted to show it off. (Even though it’s not even mine!)
Maybe he will let me drive it someday? I can only hope.
Here is the engine he put in this bad baby:
Only the good die young.
Another small token of my true gratitude to the visionary Steve Jobs.
This image is reposted (with permission) from XKCD, a “webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.”
This is a tribute to one the most iconic members of the tech industry. No, I never met Steve Jobs in person but his impact on me would have you believing otherwise. He was a wise man and the power behind Apple.
His legend will live on as a legendary CEO and innovator.
The most important thing to mention is he spent his final hours with his family, and you really can’t ask for anything more than that. Some people believe you have a sense to know when your time is near and I believe Jobs knew that. His memory will persist throughout the ages, and may God bless his family and friends.
Also, my cat Steve will now be called Steve Jobs from now on.
With care,
Matt
Speaking it is hard enough for me, let alone writing it!
But i’m taking plenty of notes!
Wish me luck!
Also, I’d like to listen to some Russian bands, any suggestions?
Love the time of year when these start to get ready. They are far from it right now, but soon…
From the hit animated television show, Squidbillies, I present you with Early Cuyler’s tips to help end bullying. You see, Early recognizes bullying as a huge problem in the world. He offer’s his advice to try and stop it in it’s tracks. Maybe by following these simple steps, you too can help end bullying.
My favorite tip has to be #3, which clearly states Don’t be such a pussy, pussy. You a damn pussy. I think that’s choice words we can all understand.
Squidbillies and Early Cuyler is copyright AdultSwim, which is owned by Turner Broadcasting System, respectively. But they are a a pretty cool company — so they will have no issue with me sharing this image with my fans. Even if they do, I’m doing it anyways.
You saw it here first! Unless, like I, you watched the episode and saw this clip and thought… HEY! That would be funny to reshare to my fans!
