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Somebody Please Explain The National Debt and Deficit To Me…

S. B. Ruppe — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 22:33:14 +0000

I’ve never really thought that much about the debt the United States of America owes to institutions and other countries across the waters. It has always seemed just an impossible issue to ever resolve. I mean it’s a rediculous amount of money and what is really being done to pay it back. …

One could argue: “Hey, we’re the U. S. … We don’t ‘feel’ like paying it back. What are going to do about it? Huh?” In a way, that’s basically what we are saying to our debtors because we are still continously borrowing - agencies and individuals alike…

We have the same attitude about the national debt as we do with the environment. “Why do I care? I won’t live long enough to see it’s negative affects…”

Some say that our nations debt will ultimately bring the country to it’s knees. I mean, to think that we will ever pay it off is just (to me) a rediculous notion. When will, or will it ever matter that we are not paying it back and constantly increasing our debt?

A great deal of people are quick to blame a certain president or two, or three; however, by this point, I can’t see how one presidency could ever even put a dent in the nations debt… Each citizen of the United States would have to agree to basically work for FREE until it has been paid in full, and we know that will never happen…

To explore the debt issue further:

Wikipedia Info on The National Debt

later,

s.b.ruppe

Have You Discovered Discovery Channel’s Game Show: Cash Cab?

S. B. Ruppe — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 17:36:09 +0000

While visiting my folks in Spartanburg, South Carolina, I’ve gotten kind of hooked on the the TV Show “Cash Cab.” It airs on the Discovery Channell in back-to-back 30 minute episodes. I’ve never been one to watch game shows, but this one is quite cool. If you are unfamiliar with this show, I’ll fill you in a bit…..

Ben Bailey, the host of the show, is a cab driver simply driving people around New york City. People get into his cab thinking their getting a normal cab ride, when all of a sudden lights start flashing and he turns around and welcomes them to the show. He tells them that they could possibly profit hundreds (sometimes thousands) of dollars from their cab ride if they answer enough questions correctly before arriving at their destination. If they answer three questions incorrectly they are kicked out of the cab evenif they have not reached their destination, but it doesn’t cost them anything; they just have to get another cab…

I guess what’s most entertaining about the show is that it’s REAL. A lot of people are familiar with the show and sometimes suspect that they are in the cash cab. Ben then starts speaking with a foreign accent or something to throw them off. When he finally lets them know, they get all excited again…it’s pretty cool…

He gets all kinds of people in the cab too. I do mean all kinds; however, he handles them very well. Sometimes there’s the occassional “Bleep” on the audio from someone getting a little too excited… Ben started out as a stand up comedian so I guess he’s used to dealing with all types of personalities…

If you haven’t watched at least one episode, give it a try… you’ll enjoy it for sure…

For more info: Discovery Channel’s Cash Cab

later,

s.b.ruppe

flowplayer - free video player for your website - your own personal youtube

S. B. Ruppe — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 15:43:48 +0000

FlowPlayer is a Free video player for the web. It will work inside your HTML based website. It’s like having your own personal ‘youtube.’ The player supports all the features you’ll possibly need and these features can be configured the way you like. Everything can be scripted via JavaScript. The user will experience progressive downloading, solid streaming, long play features, playlists, fullscreen mode … FlowPlayer has everything you’ll need to provide rich user experience…

{FlowPlayer is free and distributed under the GPL 3 license for non-commercial use. For commercial use we offer a commercial license.}

FlowPlayer Features:

Support for Multimedia: FLV, SWF, MP3, MP4, H.264 video, JPG and PNG
Flexible Configuration: FlowPlayer has tons of configuration options. You can immediately start with the defaults and start tweaking with the options.
Progessive Download: The simplest way to provide Flash video to your users. This is how YouTube does it.
Streaming: FlowPlayer supports streaming servers like the Flash Media Server, Wowza and Red5, allowing random seeking to arbitrary positions in the video timeline.
Thumbnails: Provide quick access to specific chapters in a long lasting movie.
Playlists: Control several videos in one player instance. Or ombine multiple videos as one stream with the help of a streaming server. You can also include images in playlists.
Scripting API: Control the player with JavaScript and from other Flash movies.
Prevention of Inline Linking: Protection against hotlinking or direct linking of video and image files.
Advertising Support: Player allows insertion of advertising in the video stream. Video controls can be disabled for a specific clip. You can have hyperlinks assigned to an advertising clip.
Full Screen Mode: A real fullscreen mode without maximized browser windows. You can also make you own in-window fullscreens with scripting if you like.

Here’s a screenshot of the player being used in the default mode with a light skin:

later,

find interesting websites w/stumble upon

S. B. Ruppe — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 07:41:30 +0000

Have you tried StumbleUpon.com yet? It’s quite ‘kool’ actually. Stumble Upon was created in order to help people find interesting/entertaining websites more efficiently. Once you have joined and set up your profile, you will then be able to view websites based upon your interests… No more sifting through pages of search results. Everytime you click the stumble button that is installed in your internet browser, a fresh, new website appears based upon the interests that you checked in your profile (which can be changed at any time.)…

How it works…

You simply join the StumbleUpon.com community and download the ‘Stumble’ browser application. You then login and edit your profile and start stumbling. That’s it. You are given the opportunity to give a ‘thumbs up’ or ‘thumbs down’ vote on each site that you view. Your vote helps Stumble Upon rank the websites that have been entered into their database.

You are able to view random websites based on your interest, or you can also view random myspace, youtube, blogger sites, photos, etc.

The application can easily be uninstalled at any time if you wish….

Social Networking…

The Stumble Community is also a social networking community. Your profile can be viewd by others. You can send emails, forward ‘kool’ sites, start a blog, etc. When people view your (customizable) profile, they will see the sites that you have liked viewing…

Advertisers…

This is a great, inexpensive tool for advertisers wanting to get more traffic to their websites. You can start as many advertising campaigns as you wish with multiple urls. The cost is only $.05 per visit. You can also limit your campaign to a specific dollar amount…

Bottom line: If you want to discover New & Interesting Websites without the hassle of sifting through pages of search results, you should give StumbleUpon.com a try. Remember, you can unistall it at any time…

Here’s a Video About StumbleUpon.com…

free poster making application

S. B. Ruppe — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 21:32:50 +0000

If you are looking for an inexpensive way to cover that vacant space on your wall, then you should head on over to BlockPosters.com. This site implements a very interesting, absolutely FREE, application that produces HUGE, wall-size posters in .pdf format. Each large poster is a series of 8×10 pieces of paper that you print out and put together like a puzzle on your wall. They are printed out in order, so there’s no real puzzle to it at all.

The creativity that you can excercise with this application is endless. You can create large posters or small posters… Cover an entire wall… Create a normal poster by carefully putting the pages together or post it on your wall as a “block” poster…

How it works…

All you do is upload any ole picture from your computer to their server; decide how many “blocks” you want; Create the .pdf file; Then save it to your computer so you print it out…

Pixelation…

Your’re probably thinking that with a small picture, the large poster will turn out very distorted. Well, that’s true; however, you will be surprised how ‘kool’ that effect can be. Also, you can’t really even tell on some of them after you hang them up. Check out their poster gallery for some samples…

Here’s my first try at Block Poster…

(Me playing guitar and singing at the Patriots Cafe in Fairfax, VA)

The Best Part….

I told you it was FREE right? Well, not only is it Free, but you can make as many as you want. You will find that once you get started making a few posters that it will become addicting. I think I made around 30 or so just messing around… Of course, I’ve only put up a couple for now…

Happy Poster Making,

hello world!

S. B. Ruppe — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 05:23:04 +0000

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!