Boy, FACEBOOK REALLY SUCKS

The following song is dedicated to Mark Zuckerberg, for all he's done to make Facebook the least enjoyable experience on the internet, EVER. Dude, what the hell? It's so messed up now that you've "improved" it, I had to call three teenagers just to confirm that I was not alone in my angst. They all said they hated the changes, find it difficult to use and can't figure out how to do much with it. A couple of thoughts came immediately to mind. First, if Steve Jobs had designed it, it would work. Second, this is what happens when you let the kids design a communications interface. Hey, Mark, change the Z at the start of your last name to an F, because YOU. HAVE. FAILED. I hope you lose every penny of the 112 or 17 billion Fortune magazine says you have. And now, with Meg Whitman running HP, we can all rest assured that our nation's technology is in hands similar to those running the government. Good luck, loser.

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Car Runs on Air

From France comes a revolutionary new car that runs on fuel that is so abundant we barely ever think about it: air.

Frenchman Guy Negre, a former Formula 1 engineer, has been working on a vehicle that uses compressed air to drive pistons in an efficient, no-emission engine, and he has at last produced a working prototype, the OneCAT.

Shown at right, the OneCAT is a five seater that will cost less than $5000 when mass-produced. Indian auto manufacturer Tata Motors has taken a major stake in the development and production of the vehicle which should debut - first on roads in India - within a year.

The vehicle is supposed to be able to achieve speeds of up to 85 MPH and can be fully recharged (or refilled, if you will) with compressed air in three minutes.

College Football Goes Ballistic

As the college football season rolls into the month of bowl games, only one thing is for certain: there will be upsets.

On Saturday, the top two teams, Missouri and West Virginia, both lost, marking th second consecutive week that the #1 and #2 teams lost and will likely drop in the rankings. Last week, it was LSU and Kansas, who lost to Arkansas and Missouri, respectively.

This weekend, the winners were, Oklahoma - 38-17 winners over Missouri in the Big 12 conference championship - and lowly Pittsburgh, who stopped the West Virginia Mountaineeers in their tracks with a 13-9 win in the Big East finale for both teams.

These results, and those of weeks past, have college football fanatics now wondering if there really is a #1 team in the country. A few radicals point to Hawaii, which, while most of us were sleeping, rallied to beat Washington, 35-28 and remain the only Division 1 team without a loss at 12-0.

Other teams which now may lay claim to at least a chance to play for the national title are Ohio State, Kansas, Georgia, West Virginia, Virginia Tech, LSU, Oklahoma and USC.

Hmmm... Eight great teams, plus Hawaii. Anybody for a playoff system?

Vintage Magazine Prices Fall

Here's a sign of the times: A first issue of Playboy, December 1953, recently sold on ebay for $1525.00. Just 3-4 years ago, these magazines sold for as much as $3,500 and up.

The economy, in addition to the wealth of issues pouring onto auction sites such as eBay, has pushed the price of vintage magazines to their lowest levels in years. Buyers should be able to find deals aplenty this holiday season.

Is There Intelligent Life on eBay?

Today, eBay announced that they had overpaid for Skype, the free phone service they purchased two years ago, and cited that the service had not met the company's profit and revenue objectives.

In what has to be the strangest deal I've ever seen, somehow, eBay won't have to pay all the money promised at the beginning of the deal. In either case, it looks like eBay made a bad deal for their investors. Skype was supposedly going to be used by every auction user on the planet, but most of us who list and sell on the site really don't want to be bothered answering phone calls.

Naturally, eBay executives never bothered to ask sellers if they would be interested in using a service like Skype. Had they, maybe they would have saved themselves some money and embarrassment. Oddly enough, eBay stock was up nearly a buck after the news came out.

Hot Football Picks

Normally, I don't boast, but last weekend I was KING OF THE NFL, romping home with a stellar 11-3 record in Week #4 Against the Spread.

See for yourself, the only games I missed were Atlanta over Houston, Tampa Bay over Carolina and Indy over Denver.

And there were a fair share of upsets, all correctly picked by me. I had the Browns over the Ravens, Detroit over Chicago, the Bills over the Jets and Oakland over Miami. Plus I had the two big ones, Arizona over the Steelers and Kansas City over San Diego.

Yes, I am doing a bit of chest thumping. Nothing like an 11-3 week to inspire some confidence. You can get all my picks for free every week, at SNAP CENTRAL or purchase my single college and pro BEST BETS for a very reasonable price.

Would You Sue Your Web Host?

Here's an interesting quandary. My web site hosting company refuses to answer any correspondence from my lawyer. The reason my lawyer is trying to contact them is to avoid a lawsuit.

The crux of the matter is that I've had intermittent uptime issues which got so bad over the summer that I pressed the company for first, six months of free service, and later, a refund of $400, to which the COO of the company agreed.

Now, more than a month later, nothing. No refund, no free service, not even a response to emails. They just think I'm going to forget it.

The company hosts this site, but I'll risk them shutting me down when I sue. Over the course of 4 years, because I run PPC ads, has cost me a ton of money and untold amounts from people who just plain could not access the site during one of their unplanned downtimes (at least 30 of them).

There are lots of web hosts out there. The one I'm with isn't the best, though I'll admit, now that they've moved me to a new server (4th time), it's better. But I know it's only a matter of time before the downtimes begin to occur again. I'm not leaving until they pay up or get the subpoenas. That's my leverage at this point.