Things Smackie Thinks You Need to Know...

Alright, I make no bones about the fact that this is completely ego driven, but rather than starting a new topic nearly everyday, I will now post "Things Smackie Thinks You Need To Know" in this thread. The range will be as diverse as Smackie - politics to porn, sports to celeb gossip. Ignore it if you like, enjoy it if you will.

OBSCENE LOSSES
by Claire Hoffman
November 2007 Issue
Conde' Nast

DVD sales are in free fall. Audiences are flocking to pornographic knockoffs of YouTube, especially a secretive site called YouPorn. And the amateurs are taking over. Whatâ??s happening to the adult-entertainment industry is exactly whatâ??s happening to its Hollywood counterpartâ??only worse.

On Friday, May 18, Steve Hirsch, founder of Vivid Entertainment Group, the worldâ??s largest producer of adult videos, was expecting a mysterious visitor. But Stephen Paul Jones was late. When Jones, an unknown figure in the pornography world, finally arrived in the all-white reception area of Vividâ??s Los Angeles offices at 2 p.m., he was apologetic. His private plane had broken down, he explained, and he was forced to fly commercial. Hirsch, dressed in a T-shirt and jeans, found that excuse a little slick. But he was eager to speak with Jones, so he let it slide and introduced him to two Vivid colleagues. When the four men sat down in the companyâ??s conference room, Jones got right to the point: He wanted Vivid to buy his website, YouPorn.com.

More fascinating details about why the porn industry is now afraid of the internet rather than embracing it like they once were...

For a long time know I've been advocating sitting on the fence and letting the HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray debate play out. But tomorrow, Walmart and Best Buy are selling Toshiba HD-DVD players for $99. I'm pretty sure I'd pay $99 just to watch Transformers (and Megan Fox) in HD anytime I wanted to.

http://www.dailytech.com/HD+DVD+Player+to+Break+100+Mark+on+Friday/article9498.htm

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8021767&st=toshiba+hd&lp=5&type=product&cp=1&id=1158323325814

Black Friday comes earlier every year it seems…

no fucking way, $99? that's a 'for the win' if the internet ever had one

smackie needs a blog

Last night I was singing along to Journey with a transsexual playing a ukulele in an Irish pub. That's about as San Francisco as it gets â?? I love this town!

<img src="http://www.nicolemcrory.com/images/Photos01.gif" alt=" - " />

How I imagine "smackie"…

<img src="http://www.canyon-news.com/artman2/uploads/1/ego.jpg" alt=" - " />

Originally posted by lagas:
How I imagine "smackie"…

You make a good point.

I totally need to get a mirror in my office!

It's nearly impossible to get ahead financially while living in certain metropolitan hot spots. Get your footing in an affordable location instead.

Get Ahead in a Starter City
By Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine

I just moved from Palo Alto, Calif., to Baltimore.

No, I'm not crazy. Just broke.

I lived three years in Palo Alto, enjoying the beautiful weather, a pristine neighborhood and close proximity to family. But I soon realized that if I stayed, it would be nearly impossible to reach my financial goals.

More...

The top cities for young professionals:

Washington, D.C.
Denver
Austin, Texas
Raleigh, N.C.
Lexington, Ky.

The top cities for young families:

Atlanta
Minneapolis/St. Paul
Des Moines, Iowa
Provo, Utah
Green Bay, Wis.

Ah, the most exciting cell phone news of the year (sorry iPhone lovers)…

November 5, 2007
Google Makes Its Entry Into the Wireless World
By MIGUEL HELFT and JOHN MARKOFF

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 5 â?? Google took its long-awaited plunge into the wireless world today, announcing that it is leading a broad industry alliance to transform mobile phones into powerful mobile computers that could accelerate the convergence of computing and communications.

Mobile phones based on Googleâ??s software are not expected to be available until the second half of next year. They will be manufactured by a variety of handset companies, including HTC, LG, Motorola and Samsung and be available in the United States through T-Mobile and Sprint.

The phones will also be available through the worldâ??s largest mobile operator, China Telecom, with 332 million subscribers in China, and the leading carriers in Japan, NTT DoCoMo and KDDI, as well as T-Mobile in Germany, Telecom Italia in Italy and Telefónica in Spain.

The 34-member Open Handset Alliance, as the group is called, also includes many of the leading makers of mobile phone chips, like Broadcom, Intel, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments, as well as SiRF Technology Holdings, Marvell Technology Group, Nvidia and Synaptics. EBay (which owns the Internet calling service Skype), Nuance Communications, NMS Communications and Wind River Systems are also members of the group.

The technology is expected to provide cellular handset manufacturers and wireless operators with capabilities that match and potentially surpass those using smartphone software made by Apple, Microsoft, Nokia, Palm, Research in Motion and others. In contrast to the existing competitors, Googleâ??s software will be offered freely under â??open sourceâ? licensing terms, meaning that handset manufacturers will be able to use it at no cost and be free to add new features to differentiate their products.

As always, there's more....

Originally posted by vansmack:
For a long time know I've been advocating sitting on the fence and letting the HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray debate play out. But tomorrow, Walmart and Best Buy are selling Toshiba HD-DVD players for $99. I'm pretty sure I'd pay $99 just to watch Transformers (and Megan Fox) in HD anytime I wanted to.

http://www.dailytech.com/HD+DVD+Player+to+Break+100+Mark+on+Friday/article9498.htm

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8021767&amp;st=toshiba+hd&amp;lp=5&amp;type=product&amp;cp=1&amp;id=1158323325814

Black Friday comes earlier every year it seems…

i just saw this, but i knew about Wal-Marts sale last week. the wife went to Wal-Mart at 8:30am that morning, apparently there were more than 50 people in line. and apparently Wal-mart only had 15 players to sell.

pretty shitty.

also, since i didnt know who Megan Fox was , i looked her up.

and found this tidbit: she made her movie debut with Ashely and Mary Kate Olssen in the 2001 movie "Holiday In The Sun" , her character?

Brianna Wallace…

hmmmm.

Originally posted by le sonick:
also, since i didnt know who Megan Fox was , i looked her up.

and found this tidbit: she made her movie debut with Ashely and Mary Kate Olssen in the 2001 movie "Holiday In The Sun" , her character?

Brianna Wallace…

hmmmm.

NO. FUCKING. WAY.

it's all fallen into place: we've all suspected that this brian_walalce person can't be real - and "he" is in fact megan fox!

megan - i apologize for making fun of your inability to identify guitar talent, or decent music in general. very un-gentlemanly on my part. i suggest that i make it up to you the next time you're in NYC, by taking you out to dinner and a show, maybe some clubbing afterwards. no, really, it's the least i can do. just let me know the next time you're in town. p.s. feel free to wear that miniskirt you wore in transformers. thanks.

This doesn't make any sense, but then again, it is the Pirates…

Monday, November 5, 2007
Pirates hire former coach as new Manager
Former Pirates third-base coach succeeds Tracy as manager

——————————————-
Associated Press

PITTSBURGH – John Russell is taking one of the most challenging jobs in baseball as manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates, a team with 15 consecutive losing seasons.

Let go by the Pirates as their third-base coach two seasons ago, Russell was hired Monday to succeed Jim Tracy as Pittsburgh's manager. He becomes the team's fifth full-time manager since the Pirates last had a winning season in 1992, following Jim Leyland, Gene Lamont, Lloyd McClendon and Tracy.

The 46-year-old Russell lost his previous job in Pittsburgh following McClendon's firing in September 2005. He managed the Phillies' Triple-A team the last two seasons, with the Ottawa Lynx going 55-88 last season.

It's unusual for a team to bring back someone so soon after firing him, but new team president Frank Coonelly and general manager Neal Huntington felt an instant connection with the quiet but intense Russell.

There's more here:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/print?id=3095222&amp;type=story

:o

oh like anyone with any sort of real credentials would risk the rest of their career by going anywhere near that job…

Originally posted by sweetcell:
HTC's prototype revealed, sorta

That's encouraging, but I have to be honest - I have not been impressed with HTC's first two venture's into the iPhone competition market - the Touch and the Flo - each had nice features, but both were missing one or two of the iPhones necessary features.

Smokin' hot and brilliant. Damn Tom Brady's a lucky man…

Supermodel Bundchen Joins Hedge Funds Dumping Dollars
By Bo Nielsen and Adriana Brasileiro

Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) – Gisele Bundchen wants to remain the world's richest model and is insisting that she be paid in almost any currency but the U.S. dollar.

Like billionaire investors Warren Buffett and Bill Gross, the Brazilian supermodel, who Forbes magazine says earns more than anyone in her industry, is at the top of a growing list of rich people who have concluded that the currency can only depreciate because Americans led by President George W. Bush are living beyond their means.

Originally posted by vansmack:
Smokin' hot and brilliant. Damn Tom Brady was a lucky man…

corrected.

uh, actually, come to think of it…

and who knew that gisele had a twin sister?!? <sweetcell's head explodes>

smackie, how are people supposed to write to the editor-at-large? (i.e., your mailbox is full)

Originally posted by Greer Zoller:
smackie, how are people supposed to write to the editor-at-large? (i.e., your mailbox is full)

Sorry, the response to this thread has clearly been overwhelming.

I'm going through my mailbox right now so feel free to try again.