Conner's Blog

Lots of great content around the intrawebs lately. Here is a list of links to keep you from working on this cold Friday.

• Bill reviews DeGidio’s in St. Paul.  His photos of the goat cheese appetizer had me drooling before breakfast.
• Art discovers that he is the number 1 result on Google for something a little different.
• South 12th rounds up the best method to clean your house.  I’ve been using this method for years.
• Paul gives Veet a shout out for their ad in an Australian paper.  Of course this would have been much to racy for the U.S.
• If you haven’t played the World of Goo yet, you should try it out. Kottke let’s us know the soundtrack (which is very cool) is for sale.
• Super Useless Super  Power of the week allows you to create a double of yourself.  There is a catch though.
• Paul sends us to this link at Harpers, a great photo roundup of the eight years of Bush
• Mike from the Rowdy Crowd informs us that Obama has not been flawless as president.
• Art describes the day’s television event
• I loved this photo
• Nicky is in Nicaragua and is writing about the experience.  She talks about her first week here.
• Another great photo, this time of the Minnesota version of Nessie.
• A few soup recipes from Katie.  They all look tasty.
• Emily and Stephanie do the unthinkable and create an alcoholic masterpiece with the name “Bacon Vodka”
• City Pages rounds up some great Tuesday night date spots.
• Bill Simmons writes a heart felt article about the loss of his dog.  Yes I got a little misty eyed.
• Obama’s staff hasn’t found the White house quite up the today’s technical standards.

That is it for today.  Hope you all have a wonderful Friday.  Stay warm out there everyone.

• If you happen to live in Minnesota and have a chance to try Brau Brothers Brewing Co’s Whirly Bird Oatmeal Stout do so immediatly.
• I also have to recommend Flying Dog Brewery’s Dogtoberfest
• If you missed it, NBA 2k9 shipped without as product key.  This left many gamers(including me) unable to descend into unproductive gaming binges as soon as they would like.
• Chapstick is an odd but very necessary invention
• If you use Twitter, try out twinfluence.  I’m currently ranked #47 out of 50 in social capital.
• Join the movement, Chipotle needs to begin serving breakfast.
• If you run Windows, please update now.  A major bug has been found.
• I’m endorsing working out on Friday afternoons, it is painful to enter the gym, but you leave knowing the weekend will be good.
• I have to add another MN blog to my list of those I read.  NPR’s Newscut is a daily visit.  I also recommend following @bcollinsmn.
• Only ten days left until election day, I’m moving into the no main-stream media bunker until 5:00 pm on 11/4.
• The right has gone completely mad, first they mail out a scare tactic piece basically calling Obama a terrorist and linking him to 9/11, and then Ashley Todd fakes an attack by an Obama supporter.
• Bring some fun to your office next week. You’ve been Booed.

Everyone have a great weekend, and remember to look both ways when jaywalking.

I went out today and purchased NBA 2k9 for the PC.  I hadn’t played a basketball game in years and was really looking forward to a night of being unproductive.  Well those plans have failed.  It seems 2Ksports , the publisher of the game shipped the games without a product key.  So I sit here with a game I spent $20 on and no way to install it.  According to this page at 2KSports they will have a solution by the end of the day.  Along with that page there is a 7 page thread on the 2Ksports forum with people stating they have the same issue.

First this is not just a mistake this is a total and complete screw up at every level.  The company just created a pretty massive PR nightmare.  I haven’t tried calling, but from what I read in the thread they are not answering the phones and even when someone does no solution is presented.  Second, not one representative of 2Ksports replied to the thread.  They have the tool right there to help answer questions and instead they just give a vague response on their homepage stating they are working on the problem.

I’m giving them until 7 o’clock and if a solution has not presented itself I’m going to return the game and will never purchase a 2Ksports game again.  Sadly if I would have pirated the game I would be playing it right now and would not have this problem.  When will companies realize that copy protection rarely creates sales it just hinders those it makes.

Update 6:54:  It appears a solution is in place and should be working within the next 24 hours.  Still not great and of course no apology has really been issued.  2K Sports could turn this into a good thing by possibly releasing some sort of special content for the PC version as an apology.  Instead I’m sure they will just release the fix and move on.

Update 7:12 The fix is in, after uninstalling Steam and then restarting the installation of NBA 2k9 things seem to be working.  Good that they got the fix out the door within 24 hours.  This is still another in a long line of things that show copy protection doesn’t work.  It is either broken within 24 hours or just doesn’t work.

Sorry for neglecting the three of you that visit, I’m trying not to write about politics and it’s about all I have followed in the last two weeks.  Hopefully I’ll come up with something while driving around for work today.  In the mean time here are a few random observations from the Interwebs.

Why would EA put such invasive DRM on Spore?  This will only limit sales, and result in mass pirating.

I got mentioned on Scoble’s blog due to a comment I left on Twitter.

Everyone is freaking out about the recent poll numbers, haven’t they heard of a convention bounce?  (Sorry couldn’t resist)

I recently purchased a pro account on Flickr, check out my photostream for some great photos from Montana.

I’m working on a new theme for the site.  It’s going to be a lot cleaner and lighter.  I’m working on it in an attempt to develop my wordpress skills more than anything so it may be awhile before it’s ready for primetime.

Bob Barker is retiring.  I’m not sure how I feel about this.  I was never a big Price is Right fan, but when I watched it I always enjoyed it.  I’m actually starting to wonder how many other classic game shows are going to start losing their hosts over the next 5 years.  Not that there are many left, but shows like Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune have been around forever, and when they either stop airing, or change hosts, it will be quite the change for multiple generations.