So I just received my iPhone, and I'm stoked to be entering my first blog entry with it. I need to contact my high school instructor from my typing class as we should have spent more time with thumb typing drills.

:-)

This is a non-tech blog entry, so skip it if you are looking for IT words of wisdom ;-).

I started working in the IT arena back in 1994 and have seen Corporate America become lenient, allowing their worker bees the freedom to tune out and code, etc. with their headsets on; listening to their choice tunes.

Considering that I usually only tune in to music when I'm head down coding I wanted to comment on some genres that work for me and assoc. artists.

Ambient: I queued in on an artist via winamp (Shoutcast) ambient playlist about 2 years ago. Petteri Karjalainen (DJ) known as Bad Loop. Electronica, ambient, etc. and very nice to code to. Check 'em out here: Bad Loop.

Classical: Always nice to code to, though there are times when Metallica helps 8-). To restate I am a big fan of winamp and shoutcast radio, plenty of free classical stations to listen to there.

Alternative: I have noticed that anything alternative does not distract me from code, check out Channel X on winamp radio.

Well, out of time, just thought I'd share a couple of my picks.

My wife and I recently requested advice from my aunt with regard to purchasing a Christmas gift for her twin sons. They are approaching twelve years old and she informed us that they are into Hollister clothing, axe, and old spice cologne. HA!!! 8-)

Anyhow, the reason for this blog entry:

I surfed over to the SoCal clothing company's on-line store and had to comment on how nicely designed the site is. But the real bonus was the user experience with regard to site layout and ease of use. Very intuitive and well thought out.

My only beef is that it should have been done in Flash ;p. Would have saved them time and a few K in the process I'm sure. Great site, check it out!

Luis Polanco, the senior product manager for Apollo at Adobe commandeered the ship for the luncheon Adobe e-seminar today and it opened some eyes to the folks who attended the meeting. Specifically with the robust nature in which one can develop an application with Flex and have many useful/required APIs to write a cross platform rich application.

One of the demos given by Luis was the FineTune desktop. I was behind the 8-ball with FineTune so I took a trip out to their site after the meeting. WOW! If you enjoy listening to tunes while you code I highly recommend that you download the alpha release of Apollo on labs (go here) and cruise over to FineTune.com (go here) and download the desktop. If you become a registered member you will gain access to all their slick playlists along with the ability to create your own to share with other members. Check my playlist out if you like, my user id is jforrest8.

Lastly, go code an Apollo app.! 8-)

We all know that former VP Al Gore didn't invent the internet. If you didn't know it was invented by a team of individuals (Lawrence Roberts, Leonard Kleinrock, Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf.

But he was a part of inventing Curent TV (check it out). If you have cable and have not had a chance to check it out I highly recommend it. If you would like to read more about it on wikipedia (go for it).

Ever wonder how to perform the perfect golf swing? This will get you there if you can take it from PC or laptop to golf course or driving range.

Print this list and take it to the range to groove your swing:

Download List for Excel

1. Pick out a reference point several feet in front of your ball and align your body to the imaginary line.

2. Grip the shaft so that it lies across top of forefinger and it should fit under the heel of the palm for stability.

3. Make sure the little finger is around the grip.

4. Thumb should be shortened and straight on top of the shaft.

5. Two knuckles should be visible.

6. Fold right hand over left thumb, the thumb of the right hand should be pointing at the left shoulder.

7. The correct stance starts with feet shoulder width apart with right foot at a right angle to the line of flight with the left foot slightly open.

8. Upper torso leans forward slightly with knees slightly bent.

9. There should be a hand width between body and club.

10. Weight of body on balls of feet.

11. Both arms should be straight and relaxed with the left shoulder a bit higher than the left.

12. Perform the waggle.

13. Start backswing with rotation, not hands.

14. Hands maintain same grip pressure throughout swing.

15. Practice rotation by holding club across chest and rotate like you would if you were swinging the club.

16. Shoulders, hips, hands, and arms should rotate simultaneously.

17. At the completion of the backswing your back should face the target.

18. Down swing starts by rotating your body right to left.

19. Shoulders, arms and hands then follow the body powering through impact.

20. On impact hips turned, shoulders parallel to ball.

21. Movement continues until the whole body is facing the target.

22. Right foot only moves immediately after impact.

23. It's a swing, not a hit.

24. Faster rotation = More power.

25. Hips should always lead shoulders to the end of the swing.

I'm sitting in Starbucks (regular client meeting location), waiting on a client to arrive and I ordered the regular afternoon mocha frappuccino.

They were out of mocha, so they ground up chocolate chips and threw in the seasonal holiday peppermint. I highly recommend it this drink. If you enjoyed the McDonald's green shamrock shakes as a kid this is a close second 8-)...

I am a Tiger Woods fan, as most you of know who have either golfed with me or have heard of my golf addiction. A co-worker just sent me an article here which discusses Tiger Woods accidentally hitting a 332-yard drive on the green into the group in front of him, one of the members being Padraig Harrington... What can you say about Tiger that hasn't been said, he's just pure entertainment.

If you haven't caught his swing on nikegolf.com, you can get to it here. It's been out since the summer but it appears they recently updated with Benie Mac, Ray Romano, and George Gervin commenting. It is quite funny.

Put away your Blackberry for a second and watch this. 8-)...

I received this clip from a friend and co-worker addressing how our fine military deals with poor technical support. The soldier in the film has issues with a Hewlett Packard printer and their tech. support so he takes matters into his own hands 8-)... Enjoy!!!