Episode of Scattercast is here folks… can you believe it’s been 2 months already?

This week is all about technology.

- Have you tried Google Chrome?

- Do you do enough to spread the word about web apps you love? Why not? Are you not doing your part for tech evangelism?

- Should you avoid Blu-ray and where is media going?

Here’s a link to the MP3 for those who wish to download it.

You may not have known his name, and you may not recognize his face, but you certainly knew the voice.

Don LaFontaine passed away on September 1st at the age of 68, and going to the movies will never be the same again.  LaFontaine did the voice work for over 5,000 movie trailers and 750,000 TV spots.  To say the man was kept busy due to his distinctive voice would be an understatement.

True, the man did nothing more than speak, but he was truly a master of his art, and I, for one, will miss him.  There was something comforting about always hearing his voice boom through a theater as some trailer would play.  Good-bye, Mr. LaFontaine, it just won’t ve the same without you.

There has been a lot of coverage in the media, especially in the UK, that the identity of well-known graffiti artist Banksy has been discovered.  I hope it hasn’t, and if it has, I would hope people would have the good sense to keep it quiet.

For those of you with no clue who I am talking about, Banksy is a graffiti artist working primarily in the United Kingdom, though he does occasionally pop up in various locations around the United States.  While the word “graffiti” immediately brings to mind all sorts of ugly scrawls on walls, but that word does a disservice to what this person does.  His works are only graffiti in the sense that he does his work on walls without the prior permission of the property owners.

His works have been popping up since the mid-90’s, but he became well known after he helped organize a graffiti exhibition called “Walls on Fire” in 2000.  When he fully turned to using stencils to do his work, his notoriety really took off, and he was able to do some amazingly elaborate pieces due to the amount of time stencils shaved off his free hand work.

His works, such as the Tesco Flag pictured above make an an amazing use of items already in the landscape, which also shows he must plot his moves well ahead of time to build the stencils to take these items into account.  His work is always tinged with humor, but also make powerful statements on society and the establishment that are hard to miss, let alone wonder if he isn’t also a bit correct in what he asks.

Unlike the revealing of Fake Steve Jobs that sent some people into a tizzy, Banksy is not only an artist, but socially relevant.  Part of his ability to say the things he does thorugh his art can only be accomplished via anonymity, and revealing whom he is would only serve to destroy any future works he may do, and possibly tarnish the past ones.

I was one of the people who was thrilled when W. Mark Felt was revealed to be “Deep Throat”, but after reading his back story, it changed my views of the man’s motivations for his actions.  While it had been something I had wished for, I was kinda sorry to see it happen.  With Banksy, I beg of the media to just leave it be.  Don’t actively pursue this, if he slips up, he slips up, but don’t try rooting him out because it just isn’t worth it as it will probably cost him his voice in this world, and we need it in these puzzling times.

Oh, for those of you who worry about the feelings of people that own the buildings he does his work on, most of them like it as it actually raises the value of their property as they can sell it as “a work of art with a home attached”.  (this actually happened)

On my second, and last day in Seattle (my entire time here is 46 hours), and I had some random observations to make about the place.

- I knew my trip to Seattle was complete once I saw some protesters.  I really didn’t care what they were talking about, I just needed to see some to feel like I got the whole Seattle experience.

- As the hotel shuttle was taking me back today from Pike Place Market, he had to drop some other guests off at the Space Needle.  Could someone please explain the allure of this thing to me?  Sure, you get a great view, but there was a 90-minute wait to just go up the thing.  It’s like the St. Louis Arch, I don’t get that either.  You ride up an elevator, you look you go down.  Whee.

- It has  been quite a while since I stayed in a true downtown area, I forgot about the number of homeless people and panhandlers you run in to.

- Did someone forget to inform me this city is made of gold?  I am paying insane prices for EVERYTHING.  Hotel room, food, cab fares… apparently this city has a bit too much money, and they take it out on their visitors.  Even my hotel wants to charge $20 a day to park a guests car.  I’m sorry, but that’s something that I think should always be free to guests.  You want to entice them to stay, not punish them for using your establishment.  I have heard this is happening more and more places, but it still seems pretty stupid to me.

- Sitting in a park yesterday across from Westlake Center, I heard multiple conversations from the younger folks about people who have left Seattle, people who have come back and people who are planning to leave.  Then while walking to dinner at Red Fin (a rant about sushi in the USA will be coming out of that dinner), two people walking in front of me ran into someone they knew buying a Greyhound ticket to leave Seattle.  He just couldn’t take it here any more.

What the heck is with this town and people moving in and out of it all of the time?  I have heard of this for years, thought it might be a bit exaggerated, but nope, not from my small sampling yesterday.

- I went in to two mom & pop record stores.  You would think with this being Seattle, they would be rife with indie labels, obscoure bands from the likes of Sub Pop and so on.

Nope.

Run-of-the-mill used mainstream BS.  This was really a big let down for me.

All-in-all it has been an enjoyable trip, but it is for sure that Seattle isn’t like anywhere else I have ever been.

If things appear a little odd over the next 24 hours, it’s because I am finally installing a new theme on the site.  It’s been up a few times, but we keep finding little bugs.  So, just hang in there and all will be well soon… I hope!

George Carlin was never one to skirt controversy, but no one can ever deny he had a profound effect on comedy.  Not many comedians could claim that one of their routines, Seven Dirty Words in Mr. Carlin’s case, was turned into a definfing case on onscenity before the Supreme Court of the United States.

At many times he was seen as nothing more than a foul-mouthed gutter comedian, but he was so much more than that.  He had an unfaltering eye for seeing faults in society.  His rant about Stuff came years before the current astronomical credit card debtthe most American households carry.

When you look at the current crop of comedians that are popular, there simply are not any that hold a candle to his ability for insight.  This is not saying that there aren’t any good comedians, they just aren’t of his level.  It may even be a disservice to call him a comedian as what he did was more of a form of social commentary with a humorous edge to it.

I’m getting very tired of writing these eulogies as I have for Bo Diddley and Stan Winston, and yes, I chose to pass on Tim Russert, though I felt that was also a great loss.  I’m tired of losing so many greats in their fields, and that is exactly what it feels like.  All of the people that have died as of late have been pioneers and masters of their crafts, and all of them have been a horrible loss to their chosen professions.

Rest in peace, George, you have earned it.  I leave you with one of my favorite routines of his, Baseball vs Football.

Stan Winston, a true master of special effects, has passed away.

While not a household name like some directors, actors and writers, many of the world’s favorite movies would not have been possible without his technical genius. Even as recent as this summer’s Iron Man, his studio was the force behind the suits of armor. He was the person who brought the menace to Predator, and he was the designer who brought the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park to life. This is but a taste of his enormous resume of contributions to the cinema.

Mr. Winston had been battling multiple myeloma, a cancer of the white blood cells, for seven years. He passed away in his home on Sunday the 15th at the age of 62. There is no word on what will happen with his studio, but you have to assume that it was continue. The question is will we see the same level of quality work as we’ve expected over the years.

He will be deeply missed by movie fans the world over.

When I first wrote about Garfield Minus Garfield, I thought for sure that the strip’s original creator, Jim Davis, would eventually shut the strip that removes his beloved cat down.

Sure, it’s silly on some levels, and you wonder how long this can last before Jim Davis, the creator of the comic strip, tries to shut it down. One hopes he will just leave it alone as it has probably brought his strip more attention than it has gotten in years

Well, in a New York Times article about the comic strip, Jim Davis not only admits to occasionally reading the derivative of his work, but to finding it “fascinating”. He also said that he is flattered by it rather than peeved, but he also sees that some of the strips work better than others.

Mr. Davis, who has been drawing Garfield for 30 years, said that “Garfield Minus Garfield” has actually prompted him to take a different look at his own work. He compared Mr. Walsh’s efforts to the cerebral approach of Pogo, the comic strip by Walt Kelly.

“I think it’s the body of work that makes me laugh — the more you read of these strips, the funnier it gets,” Mr. Davis said. As for Garfield himself, “this makes a compelling argument that maybe he doesn’t need to be there. Less is more.”

I am floored by this. Utterly, and amazingly, floored. We are in a day and age where people are sued at the drop of a hat for even remotely looking at someone else’s copyrighted work, let alone wholesale copying of it. I have to applaud Mr. Davis for not only taking this in the manner it was meant, but to also having the ability to see that it might teach him something about his own work.

In case you haven’t already done so, do make sure to swing by the site, and check out this amazing take on a comic strip, and know that the creator has no problem with it.

You know, I was just thinking, “Hey, self, you know that border guards have way too much free time on their hands! They need something to do that will impossibly clog up people crossing the border into some countries in anything even remotely resembling a reasonable time!”

Oh… thank you, G8!

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) has been revealed to be a secret proposal that is being worked on by the G8 nations that would empower border guards of the member nations to search through the contents of electronic devices such as iPods, laptops, phones and more for any material that infringes on copyrights. This includes, but is not limited to, files you have ripped from physical media you already own such as CDs and DVDs. If any infringing material is found, you can be fined, have your device seized and even possibly destroyed.

Apparently ACTA was originally thought of for going after large scale piracy, but at some point the whole proposal has gotten drilled down to individual users True, the total final document as not yet been revealed, and it is hard to believe it would stand up in court as the searches are reported to done without benefit of having a lawyer present, but this just screams an endless headache to me.

As if going through customs wasn’t already a big enough of a pain, now they can slow the process down even more as you explain where every file on your iPod came from. Am I now to travel with receipts for every file? Add in the point that they say this will even cover music you ripped from your own CD collection (remember boys & girls, we’ve been told that is stealing), and essentially every iPod crossing the border will have some form of “copyright infringing” file on it.

Is it just me, or do you think border guards have about 5,000 more important things to concern themselves with than someone with a couple of Beatles songs on their iPod they took off their own CDs? Yes… I’m looking at you, President Bush! This proposal would also require Internet service providers (ISPs) to turn over all private information about an individual with no more cause than suspicion of copyright violation.

Essentially, ACTA will turn us even more into a big brother state than ever with people digging through your cyber-life, even on your non-connected gadgets, all in the name of “copyright protection”. I’m sorry, but I have a news flash for everyone: copyrights don’t matter THIS much. I’m all for protecting copyrights, but there comes a point where it is just not worth it to protect some large corporations “intellectual properties” by inconveniencing everyone and their brother at security, treating everyone with an iPod as a potential criminal and then confiscating their devices. Simple solution though, I will simply never travel with my iPod because I simply do not want the hassle of explaining 120+ gigs of music to someone. That many hours of my life is not worth listening to The Ramones on the plane.

What else bothers me about this whole thing is that it was being worked on in secret. It wasn’t until some folks in Canada got wind of it and filed demands for information that it even came to light. Gee, why are you hiding such materials? Because you know it’s ignorant and the general public would never approve it? As the National Post points out, this would be a federal trade agreement, and as such does not require any sort of public ratification to be enacted.

If all goes according to plan, this proposal will be discussed in July when the G8 meets in Japan. We can only hope someone with a brain finally says, “wait a tick…”

Remember when Toshiba killed off HD DVD, everyone thought Blu-ray would take off now since there was no confusing format war any more? It would appear someone forgot to tell the consumers that they were supposed to be snapping it up.

According to a report issued by the NPD Group, Blu-ray player sales dropped 40% between January and February and then only recovered 2% between February and March. The researchers are actually choosing not to release firm sales figures because you might be able to identify the retailers due to the numbers being so low.

I don’t think this is quite as disastrous as other various tech pundits seem to be thinking: sales will always drop in the post-Christmas season, and we are also seeing a slow down in economic growth, meaning people are less likely to purchase luxury items. I do think one key factor has to be taken into account is the enormous collections of DVDs people have built up during the life-span format.

True, many people have said this would be Blu-ray’s next fight, but I think even they may have underestimated it. Upconverting DVD players are now dirt cheap, well under $100, while Blu-ray players, with their still unfinalized format, are sitting north of $300. So for less than a $100 your DVD collection gets a breath of new life as your able to enjoy them in new clarity on your HDTV, and no need to buy all of the same movies and television shows again in what is essentially the same format.

Meanwhile, the other elephant in the room is digital downloads, and Apple is now going to be delivering those day-and-date with the DVD/Blu-ray releases. The format is not perfected yet, and the resolution is less than that of a DVD, but if you prefer the idea of a lot less clutter in your life, freeing yourself of all that physical media, then you’re probably going to be willing to put up with slightly less resolution. (never mind being able to take your purchase mobile with you on your iPod/iPhone).

So, perhaps instead of HD DVD adopters being the “losers” in this format war, it may end up being all of us thatwent  with a high definition format disc to begin with.  Gee… wouldn’t that be fun?  Thanks, movie studios!

Apparently it is another slow news period in the world, because the story of Miley Cyrus posing for pictures in Vanity Fair is yet another non-story that should not be getting anywhere near the coverage it is.

For those of you unfamiliar with her, Miley Cyrus is the star of the insanely popular Disney series, Hannah Montanna. (warning:insanely loud music plays when you go there) She is also the daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus, the well-known country music singer.

First off, let’s just talk about it artistically. I am certainly no great art critic, but I think this is a simply gorgeous portrait. There is no denying that Annie Leibovitz is probably the greatest living photographer of this age. She has an unmatched eye for capturing a person’s essence, and her sense of lighting is phenomenal.

However, people are up in arms over this image saying that it over sexualizes the young pop star. As this story has swirled for the past couple of days, Ms. Leibovitz has now had to issue a statement defending the image, and Ms. Cyrus has issued a statement that she is “embarrassed” by it, and has apologized to her fans.

For what? Seriously, what is there to be apologized about here? Yes, she appears to be wrapped in a sheet, but, so what? This image is only as sexual as YOU choose to make it, and to me it is a perfect summary of that odd time in every woman’s life where you are no longer a child (the back) and yet you aren’t quite a woman yet (her cheeks are still very Cherubic), and, shocking news, that’s exactly what she is, a 15-year-old. I personally see absolutely nothing wrong with the portrait, but that may just be me.

Ms. Cyrus’ has also suggested she was coerced into this photo by Ms. Leibovitz, which I find hard to believe.  Also, both her grandmother and teacher were on set while this picture was shot, and all three were shown the image on a laptop within minutes of the picture being taken, agreeing it was a wonderful image of the young woman.

So who are these “outraged” people?  Why are they so upset about this picture?  I ask this in all sincerity because I simply do not get what is wrong with this picture, and, I have to be honest, it makes me wonder about the people who do have a problem with it.  Why is this so offensive?

When speaking with the diabolical “M” last night, she raised an extremely valid point: “Would we be having this same discussion if she wore a backless dress to the Oscars?”  The answer is that we wouldn’t be.  Because people with overactive imaginations looked at this photo, and placed their own thoughts in to this, it became an issue.  To me, again, I just see a beautiful portrait, wonderfully shot and lit, but yet I see nothing sensual in it.

I know I was fairly rough on Ms. Cyrus’ Disney co-worker Vanessa Anne Hudgens, back when those nude photos of her came out, but to me there is a world of difference here.  In Ms. Hudgens’ corner we have skanky pictures taken in a bedroom, fully nude verses a beautiful portrait revealing nothing but a back.  Yet, here we are, and Ms. Hudgens’ is currently working on High School Musical 3, so apparently people don’t get THAT upset over some full-blown nudity, but if you show a bare back, the apocalypse is coming.

This probably all comes down to the old argument of “beauty is in the eye-of-the-beholder”, but in this case it would seem it is more about what is dirty/wrong is in the eye-of-the-beholder.

I wasn’t aware until last night that ReadWriteWeb had decided to continue the, “Oh bloggers are over stressed and we’re all dying” meme started by the New York Times. I already covered this on April 6th in Dying To Blog, but this one brought up even more silliness.

News blogging is probably one of the most stressful occupations you can have. First, you have to watch the crazy-fast moving, non-stop tech world all the time. News bloggers have thousands of feeds in their RSS readers. Staying on top of all that is not easy. In addition, you have to write well. It is not just the story, its how you present it that makes a difference. Creativity needs to be present whether you are sick or its rainy or you are simply not in the mood. Every day you need to watch the world and re-invent yourself.

Welcome to the world of writing, here’s your laptop.

Blogging is no more stressful than any other form of news delivery job, but I guess it is all a matter or perspective. However, to say it is “one of the most stressful occupations you can have” is just narrow-minded hyperbole. I could make you a laundry list as long as my arm of occupations that are more stressful just off of the top of my head. (air traffic controller… stock broker… cop… fireman… doctor…)

If someone is so stressed out by writing news blogs, than change to another type of blogging. There is a seemingly never ending stream of blogs needing writers, so if you’re doing this, you’re choosing to do this and you need to stop your whining. Yes, I get stressed out sometimes, but most of the time I am thrilled to be doing what I’ve wanted to do since I was 4-years-old, and getting paid a fair wage to do it. I get to work at home, in my favorite chair, wearing what I want, a dog sleeping on my foot and some crap show playing in the background on the television. Why should I be stressed?

I hate to call it like it is, but this is one of those stories that is going to circulate for a while because it’s an easy write-up, and it’s also linkbait because people like me aren’t going to be able to resist the urge to whine about it. Don’t bite from the apple, and just let this meme die, it is beneath us to continue to beat this into the ground. If you can’t manage your own stress, learn to, and stop trying to make people feel pity for us; I am neither deserving or wanting of it, quite honestly. Suck it up, do your assignments, and then get up and go exercise or something. Works for me.

Frederic over at The Last Podcast found this fabulous YouTube video that paints a portrait of how some bloggers seem to think of how we write.

Facebook finally got an application I’m enjoying: Triumph.

Simply put, you fight people… endlessly.  You start off with a small kingdom and start building your offenses and defenses, trying to attack your neighbors to capture some of their land.  As the game progresses you can join an alliance which basically means if someone picks on you too much, your alliance members will attack them to tell them to back off.

It is deceptively easy because you think you only need to worry about the war aspect, but you also have to manage your lands with things like commercial zones (to generate cash), residence (your people need somewhere to live), military bases (to increase your troops effectiveness) and so on.

Does it accomplish anything?  No, but it’s fun, it’s a nice break between writing articles, and I fully admit I like to imagine I am in control of the vast lands and armies of Seanlandia… we have cupcakes on Tuesdays… after the weekly beheading of my enemies.

If you’re on Facebook, check it out, see if you can take me on!  (HA!  I shall crush you like worms beneath my heel!… and, no, M, it’s not a high heel)

Yes, the site was down for around 17 hours for reasons beyond my control, everything has been fixed now, and we shall discuss this… later.

For those of you unfamiliar with Flickr, it is a photo hosting site that, for reasons beyond me, grew well past being just a way to share photos, but almost reached cult like status amongst heavy Web users. So huge is it’s status, I even signed up for an account there many moons ago… and I have still yet to share one picture on it. I simply don’t get the excitement, but I am obviously in the minority.

So, imagine my surprise when earlier this week when Flickr announced they were adding video hosting… and all hell broke lose. Quite quickly, my Twitter feed filled with people saying it was a sign of the apocalypse, people were starting petitions, websites sprung up, people started tagging their pictures with “no videos”, I believe some claimed there were sacrifices of babies, dogs started thinking cats were all sorts of “okay”… in short, people over reacted.

Welcome to the 21st century folks; businesses do evolve, it’s the nature of the beast. So, Flickr added the ability for their PAYING CUSTOMERS, you know, the ones who pay $24.95 a year, not the freeloaders on the open accounts, to upload 90-second videos… get over it. It is not the end of the world, if you don’t like it, don’t use it, but for the love of everything… SHUT UP ABOUT IT!

I am all for people protesting for what they believe in, but aren’t there more important things in life than a website adding video support? How does this possibly harm you? It doesn’t! Sure, I heard someone say it would muddy up the photo pools, but come on, you can’t just glance over the videos?

I think iJustine summed it up pretty well in her video… uploaded to Flickr.

Let me just get it out of the way: I am 100% behind the idea of a free Tibet, and I am not thrilled with China hosting the Olympics.

That being said: Stop attacking the torch carriers.

Those of you who think that attacking the runners somehow furthers your cause, or somehow makes “a statement”, shut up, sit down, and get over yourselves. People have every right to protest the torch, but there is no need to go beyond signs, banners, chanting, etc; there is absolutely no reason why you should be impeding the runners, or laying hands on them. At this point you are endangering yourself, the runner and all of the people around you.

You do realize these are innocent people, correct? You also realize this is an open flame? The worst thing I’ve seen so far was the person in Paris in a wheelchair carrying the torch and people started scuffling around the torch. What if it had fallen in their lap? Are you willing to injure someone to make a statement? A person that is more than likely not even Chinese? I know I certainly wouldn’t be willing to see that happening.

So, again I say, protest all you want, Tibet should be free, but assaulting the runners is just wrong on so many levels that it is mind boggling.

In December of last year, I discussed that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) had changed their position on the legality of making MP3s from your own CDs. While they had at one time said it was okay, in recent court cases that have been taking the tact that it is technically illegal to do so.

This is where it gets funny. As of this moment, and keeping in mind that you can not rip music from your own CDs, there is no legal way to have the music of the Beatles on your MP3 player. Yes, a deal is now in place for their music to be sold on iTunes, but it has not taken effect yet.

So, what should the RIAA do if someone famous, say, oh, I don’t know, the President of the United States, admitted to having Beatles songs on his iPod?

Credit goes to 9to5Mac for finding this. Now, I’m actually not saying the RIAA should go after him, but I do think this demonstrates just how silly this whole idea is. I certainly don’t think President Bush went on a torrent site and downloaded the songs, and probably some intern ripped the music from the President’s CD collection for him, but that just shows people don’t think twice about such an action, and in my thinking, they shouldn’t have to.

However, if the RIAA is going to make such a stink about this act, and even try to use it in court hearings, then I want to know they went after this evil-doer that has admitted publicly to having music on his iPod that could have only gotten there by illegal means. Come on RIAA… you seem to have big brass ones when it comes to picking on the common folk, you got what it takes for this case?

Yesterday I posted two April Fools jokes: The knitting list and “a Muppets video“. The video was an afterthought because as the day wore on, and I saw more and more people getting “Rick Roll’d“, I decided it was an excellent opportunity to explain and discuss the idea of “Internet memes” to those readers of my site who aren’t familiar with them.

I know I have many web savy/2.0 types who come by now due to my work at Mashable, but I also have a large number of readers and friends that come by and have no clue what it is we in the tech business are talking about sometimes. As fun as working in the Internet realm can be, I think we sometimes forget that not everyone who uses the net is privy to our own brand of English we have developed, nor are they “in” on a lot of our little jokes. Last night I had to explain “Rick Roll’d” to a very good friend of mine, who also informed me she had just discovered ICanHasCheezeburger, (”I just learned about this place ..I think it’s the same place the satanic verses prophesize”) and that made it abundantly clear to me that we may be getting a bit presumptive with some of our jokes.

So, before I go further, an Internet meme is any video, image, text or hyperlink that gets passed around from person to person until they reach a point where it seems like everyone is in on the joke, with some of the leaking into mainstream entertainment. The first time I can remember a meme going mainstream was the “Dancing Baby” videos that eventually worked themselves into a recurring character on Ally McBeal in 1997. That was one of the first times I can remember thinking, “Oh crap… the Internet is going to be one of the biggest things ever…”

There have been hundreds, if not thousands of memes since the dancing baby: Numa Numa kid, Star Wars kid, Hampster Dance (this one may pre-date Dancing Baby… not sure), and on and on, but I think as of yesterday, Rick Rolling took on a whole new level. The basic concept is that you trick people into hearing, or seeing the video of, Rick Astley’s 1987 hit song, Never Gonna Give You Up. You typically hide the video in a “blind” link, such as saying “I think this may help explain the quarterly reports better”, the person clicks the link, and it’s Mr. Astley singing away. The Muppets one I posted yesterday is a bit more devious in that it is “mashup” (a combination of two things on the Ineternet), so even though the YouTube preview shows Beeker from the Muppets, you hear him singing the song, hence, a Rick Roll.

Quickly leaking out to the offline world, Rick Rolling first appeared about a year ago, and, for reasons beyond my comprehension, has become popular at rallies against the Church of Scientology, with people playing it over boom boxes in front of church sites. What made me realize it has reached insane proportions was when YouTube set a trap for users so that whenever they clicked on a “Featured Video” on the site’s front page, they were, you guessed, it Rick Rolled. This is what made me questions the whole thing because YouTube has millions and millions of users from all over the world, different age demographics, different languages… how many people didn’t get the joke and just thought the site was screwed up?

Rick Rolling works best when people understand the joke, when they don’t, it just seems odd. This is a lot of the reason I posted the Muppets video because I knew some of you would be scratching your heads, thinking I had lost my mind. My hope is maybe the Internet will re-think things for next April 1st and pick a more universal joke than one only those of us who live our lives on the Net will get.

I just found this rare Muppet clip, and I can not stop laughing.

Today marks a new direction for my site… it’s all going to be about knitting. No more tech (unless it has to do with knitting), nothing about pop culture, no rants… all knitting, all the time. What better way to start than a list of 10 sites for knitting fanatics?

DesignsToLove.com - Dedicated to all sorts of crafts, this social network will allow you to show off your work and get inspired to do new things.

Etsy.com - Etsy is a marketplace for you to sell things you make, so if you have a talent for knitting toaster cozies, this may be the site for you to sell them on.

KnitGeekLife.com - He’s a geek, he’s a knitter… surprised aren’t you? Check out how much he’s completed of each project.

KnittingHelp.com - Well, this is unfortunate, I do a screen shot for you all, and they are jokingly changing to DentalHelp.com. How juvenile to make your blog something else for April Fool’s Day! That aside, lots of lessons here on how to knit.

KnittingNinja.com - Many examples of this woman’s knitting skills… not so many of her supposed ninja skills. I call fraud!

KnittingPatternCentral.com - Thousands of free knitting patterns divided into over 50 categories.

Knitty.com - An online only magazine about all things knitting.

MenWhoKnit.com - They’re men… they knit… they’re proud.

Ravelry.com - Proving that there is a social network for everything, Ravelry is a social network for knitting and crocheting enthusiasts. Share your work, swap patterns, get your knit on.

StraightMaleKnitter.blogspot.com - The name of this blog says it all. See his thoughts on knitting and what projects he has completed.