The guys over at Smarthouse have reported a new Xbox just might be on the way:
Microsoft, according to insiders at Toshiba owner of the HD DVD patents, claim that Microsoft is working on a brand new Xbox that will incorporate not only a new HD DVD drive but a large hard drive and new entertainment software that is a spin off from its struggling media centre offering.
Wow, time flies when you let it (that’s the key Fred, when you let it)… it’s already almost week 7 and I haven’t even posted about week 6 yet! So without further delay, let’s get it on!
Game of the Week
Minnesota 34 - Chicago 31 : This was probably one of the most entertaining games I’ve seen in a very long time. It seemed that Devin Hester and Adrian Petersen were just putting on an “anything you can do I can do better” contest. Every time Hester made a big play, Adrian turned around and outdid him. It was simply a matter of who could score last, and Minnesota was able to do that.
This is disappointing news to me. Randy “The Natural” Couture has resigned from the UFC via a fax from South Africa. For anyone who is now asking who the heck that is… he’s the current (well, was I guess, he’s not anymore) heavyweight champion in the Mixed Martial Arts league called UFC. UFC is the ‘new’ boxing. It sweeping the nation, no change that, it’s swiffer-ing the nation and becoming one of the fastest growing sports in North America. Randy Couture was one of the guys I really loved watching in this league, he’s a very classy guy, he’s one of those guys that is never supposed to win and always does, and he’s got outstanding character to boot. He gave reason for his resignation:
“I’m tired of being taken advantage of, played as the nice guy and basically swimming against the current with the management of the UFC,” he said. “I have a lot of other things going on in my life that I’m doing just fine with. I don’t need the problems. I don’t feel like I get the respect I deserve from the organization, and that’s motivation No. 2 for the letter of resignation that was sent today.”
The other problem with his resignation is that he’s also resigned as commentator, which means we are now stuck listening to Joe Rogan as color commentator. I could write up a whole ‘nother blog about all the things wrong with him (John Madden is notorious for being one of the most annoying color commentators in the sports industry, if you ask me, compared to Rogan, the garbage that comes out of his mouth is nothing but beautiful poetry).
What it boils down to is this. The UFC lost one of their greatest ambassadors for their sport, and it appears from reports that it’s largely due to it’s president Dana White. While I’m sure we will eventually hear more on what happened, in the meantime, “The Natural” will be greatly missed.
It’s fast approaching the time of year when lists really start going into full swing. This is one of the few lists that actually caught my eye. A quick bit of background for you:
Earlier this year the American Film Institute re-voted their top 100 American movies of all time. The first list, compiled in 1998 sparked a great discussion, several TV specials and got people talking about some old classics they hadn’t seen in a while. This year that list was updated to see how the films of the last 10 years would be ranked and to see how our tastes in culture had changed.
Apparently enough fanboys got upset by these rankings, or what was left out of them perhaps, that some of them made a list of what SHOULD have been the top 100. A quick glimpse at the top 10 after the jump:
There’s some crazy stuff going on these days in the wide, wide world of sports. And, you guessed it, I’ve got some thoughts on it. This is the part where you decide if it’s worth reading.
Injury Bug
All across the NFL, players are dropping like flies from all sorts of injuries. Tampa Bay lost Cadillac Williams to a potentially career threatening injury last week. They turn around this week and watch their backup running back go down for 6-8 weeks with an ankle injury. Miami got the chance to watch their starting QB get knocked out (getting a grade 3 concussion, the worst kind) after going for a low block. This after he was knocked out for over a month last year with a less serious concussion last year. And this wasn’t just limited to the Florida teams. Denver lost their starting center for the whole year, Carolina’s going to be without Jake Delhomme for the remainder of the season (I told you Carr would be the full time starter by week 7), Matt Leinart won’t see the field for about 6 weeks, the Aints lost Deuce for the year, and Cincy didn’t even get Kenny Irons into the regular season before he was shelved.
Take an hour, sit down and go through your monthly expenses, gather your bills from the past few months and figure out what you can cut out in order to save yourself money. For example, I canceled my satellite radio, and switched to a text messaging plan with fewer monthly texts to save money a total of $23.75 a month.
The more you’re willing to sacrifice the more you can save, some things you may consider for cutting costs
Cable
Online gaming (Xbox live, WoW, etc)
Magazine/newspaper subscriptions
Movie rental subscriptions (Netflix, Blockbuster Online)
Gym membership you never use
Of course with things like Blockbuster online, you might actually be saving yourself money instead of renting locally or going to the movies in theater, so take that into account.
Next, take that money you were already spending each month and put it into a savings account (see: Longterm Savings Growth).
As a freelancer my income is anything but steady, so in recent weeks I’ve undertaken the task of trying to generate some passive income through various projects. I’ll be posting a monthly report on how much I make through passive income, but first, here’s an overview of where my passive income will be (hopefully) coming from.
This Blog:
The concept is simple, write about random things I have an opinion on, toss in a few Google Ads and hope somebody clicks… However, this money is split between myself and my fellow bloggers, so I doubt it’ll generate that much income.
Google Adsense:
I run a random forum which I spend 3 minutes a week actually running, and again it has some Google Ads up on it, it currently makes enough to pay for its hosting (and the hosting of this site).
LinkWorth:
I’ll be using LinkWorth to sell some text links on various sites that I run.
Revver:
We’ll see just how many cents can be made uploading random videos to Revver.
Dividends: I have a few investments that pay out dividends, one monthly, the rest quarterly. I’ll be looking to add several more dividend stocks over the next 3-6 months.
Interest:
Much like dividends, this could be considered cheating… but what the hey.
Cash Back:
My credit card gives me “rewards” for spending money, and while I don’t plan on spending more money just to earn rewards, it’s a nice bonus. To take advantage, I’ve moved as many of my bills as I can over to my Chase card, I have to pay them anyway, so why not earn a little cash back?
AppleInsider is reporting that Apple may be shipping it’s latest installment of OS X this month on the 26th.
While sources have requested that we not go into detail regarding the specific measures being put into place, they say the announcements are likely to arrive any time between the 22nd and 27th of the month.
Obviously, such a timeframe would coincide with Apple’s self-imposed release schedule for Mac OS X Leopard, which the company — after having delayed the software once — has promised for “October.”
As of Wednesday evening, the source code to Leopard had not yet been frozen and a Gold Master had not yet been declared. However, the operating system in recent weeks has inched closer to this status with the last full builds including only one known issue.
Historically, Apple has tapped the final Friday of the month to roll out its major operating system overhauls. For instance, it launched Mac OS X Tiger on the eve of Friday, April 29, 2005.
Sources have yet to rule out the possibility that Leopard would be accompanied by additional announcements from the Cupertino-based company.
You can pre-order a copy over on Amazon.com for $129
