GameTracker by CBS College Sports

As I was unfortunately unable to attend the Fresno State Bulldogs football game tonight against the University of Hawaii Warriors, I wanted to keep up to date on the score/game.

I have, in the past, followed the games online at gobulldogs.com with their live GameTracker, which has play-by-play details of the game. It has traditionally been fairly basic with the scoreboard, a two dimensional picture of a field and small icons representing where the ball is etc. on the field.

This season GameTracker has been given an upgrade.



While the score may not be that comforting, I was very impressed with the visuals on this game tracker. Not only has the scoreboard been given a facelift, but the representation of the field is immensely better. The little icons for ball placement have been replaced with little animations showing the basic outcome of the play and while still not even close to actually being there, it gets you a little closer to the action. The little players pass, run, and kick the ball throughout the field. It is pretty entertaining.

I know the Fresno State Athletics website is run in partnership with CBS College Sports (formerly CSTV) and gives more resources to providing richer content to fans, but I've been pleasantly surprised a few times now in the last few months with the website. They also have a mobile version of gobulldogs.com which makes browsing on my phone so much better.

Smart Car Brochure

I received in the mail today a brochure from smart USA.

I don't have a lot of experience with buying new cars, and the marketing efforts of car companies after purchasing a vehicle from them.

The brochure I got from smart USA is about CD sized, and it was fairly thick.

It said

smart emergency kit. Thank you for choosing smart. As a token of our appreciation, we're giving you some essential cargo to take along for the ride. This "emergency kit" contains a few fun extras to help keep you moving.

Upon opening the package I came across this:



The next page showed this:



And the next page:



And unfolded, the whole brochure looked like this:



I think this is a really cool idea. It keeps me happy and feeling good about the smart brand, and it didn't cost them more than $20 to make a really meaningful impact on me. I am already their customer, but how much more likely I am to talk them up now (still).

Vintage Advertisements

Advertising has come a long way, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily gotten better.



Check out these 50 Inspiring Vintage Advertisements to see the many visually inspiring ads of previous generations.

Via Presurfer

Breakfast Cereal

I have been stocking up on breakfast cereal recently, partly because of some sale prices at Target.

In the last week, I've purchased 8 boxes of cereal (just for myself). 4 boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, 2 boxes of Life, and 2 boxes of Quaker Oatmeal Squares. This brings the total number of boxes of cereal up to 12 in my pantry, which I will be eating over the next couple of weeks. Please remind me over the next little while that I do not need to buy anymore cereal for a bit.

Speaking of cereal, check out The Breakfast Bowl for a couple of posts about cereal boxes selling on eBay for a lot of money.

What Would You Do With $700 Billion

With all this talk about bailouts and whether or not the US government should spend $700 billion on the the financial industry, I really enjoyed this article from WorldChanging.

I think one thing this current event is doing to our culture is affecting the perceived value of money. Since the total of $700 billion is thrown around so much in the media, it is almost starting to seem like it is not so much money. Just remember though, each billion is 1 000 million.

Digital TV

I don't have cable here at the apartment, which made getting an HDTV all the more special because of all the "extra" digital channels you can get over the air. And High-Definition programming is amazing, and it really is a huge step up from analog TV.

Here is a listing of the digital channels I get here in Fresno. (This is not a comprehensive list of the digital stations in Fresno, I'm sure there are some channels that I don't get).

• 7.1 - KAIL - My Network TV
• 7.2 - RTN - Retro Television Network
  
• 18.1 - KVPT - Valley Public Television
  
• 18.2 - KVPT - PBS-HD
  
• 18.3 - KVPT - V me - Spanish Language Public Television
  
• 21.1 - Univision
  
• 24.1 - KSEE - NBC HD
  
• 24.2 - KSEE - Weather Plus
  
• 24.3 - KSEE - LATV
  
• 26.1 - KMPH - FOX HD
  
• 26.2 - KMPH - FOX DT
  
• 30.1 - KFSN - ABC HD
  
• 30.2 - KFSN - DT2
  
• 30.3 - KFSN - ABC 30 Weather Now
  
• 47.1 - KGPE - CBS HD
  
• 47.2 - KGPE - VTV - DT2
  
• 59.1 - KFRE - The CW HD

I have noticed though that two stations (40.8 and 40.9) have shown up with a channel search. Nothing is being broadcast on these channels, and nothing came up in a quick google search. It almost seems like these are actually some other type of signal that has made its way into the DTV spectrum.

Everything Simpsons

If you are a fan of the TV show The Simpsons I would like to share with you a website that will have you more excited than a kid in a candy shop.



The Simpsons Archive is

The Simpsons Archive is the Internet's clearinghouse of Simpsons guides, news, and information, voluntarily maintained by members of alt.tv.simpsons and other fans around the world.

The website address (http://snpp.com/) in itself is interesting (Springfield Nuclear Power Plant). Anything you ever wanted to know about any Simpsons episode, or really anything pertaining to The Simpsons can be found here.

Check it out, but be careful because you might spend too much time browsing.

Classic Sesame Street

Since the economy and a lot of things in our world aren't going so well right now, I thought I would introduce a little happiness by sharing some classic Sesame Street skits.

Here are a few of my favorites:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4VNMERVsC4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhUFxaauNTE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8IfCSnYPYo

Honorable mentions:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jG-0_p_yefg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvTFv5xJUQc

If you don't crack even a small smile from watching these you probably have some issues for which you should get help.

Got any other favorite Sesame Street videos?

Sound Waves

Similar to the other speaker trick an experiment consisting of a speaker, a metal sheet, and some salt. Watch as the science is expressed visually.

Warning: At some point in the video, the sound gets so high that it might hurt your ears. Also, make sure your pets are not around while playing this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9GBf8y0lY0

I love watching this and seeing the progression and the relationship between the pitch and the patterns.

Via Presurfer

Voting Choices

Have you ever had problems deciding for whom you will cast your vote? ABC News has an interesting tool on their website that is supposed to help you make that choice a little easier.

The Match-O-Matic pits quotes from the US Presidential Candidates McCain and Obama against each other without telling you who said which. You pick the quote you agree with most, and it tells you how you score. Many of the quotes, as can be imagined, are fairly easy to discern the candidate, but I was surprised at the outcome of my final score, and how the spread ended up.

As with my actual vote during the election, the outcome of this little test (whether reflective of my vote or not) will be a secret.