Tag: websites

About KCRA’s new prep sports site…

Have y’all seen KCRA promoting “our new site, highschoolplaybook.com”? And have you also seen the commercial on KCRA for highschoolplaybook.com, clearly indicating that our region is just one of the communities featured on the site. (That commercial, by the way, is very confusing … the young gal is interviewing the football star, and then suddenly the sound goes out on them? implying to me that they are falling in wuv, but without that classical music snippet that they play when people are in wuv, you know the one. I assume it was written by Mozart.)

I assumed it was one of those mistakes about computers that old people make, like saying “how can I download the internet.” It made me wonder why they didn’t promote their new video feature a few months back as “our new online video site, YouTube.com”…

However, it took the wind out of my sails when I saw that the site is actually a property of Hearst-Argyle Television. Abort snark!!

The heat is…on

A few weeks ago sac-eats wrote a post “encouraging” folks that read this here web log to vote for it as “Best Local Blog” and/or “Best Local Website”.  Local blogger FFT commented that this effort to garner votes was “shameless”.  Well, via FFT, we learn that there is “a major upset brewing” for Best Blog.  Jeff, over at Eyes for the Brambles, picked up on this post as well.

I can’t guess the upset. Sacrag and hecksac won last year. Have people grown tired of snark and food and rock show reviews?

Well, Sacramento, what local blogs do you think have a chance at taking home the top spot this year?  What makes a good local blog?  Random comments about comments?  Hard hitting local media watchdogging?  Food reviews?  Your random comments are welcome…

DB comes back to life with Movie City USA

DB, creator of one of my former favorite local blogs, The Barnesyard, has come back to the personal publishing world with a new film reviews/lists/humor site Movie City, USA

Many of you may remember that I used to run a little film criticism blog called The Barnesyard. It provided me with an informal setting where I could “rap” with the kids about the real issues facing today’s youth – the validity of the auteur theory, the effects of the monolithic American movie distribution model, early Ozu vs. late Ozu, peer pressure, bullies, and the like. I shut down The Barnesyard almost one year ago due to pressure from
Homeland Security – apparently The Terrorists were so disemboldened by my tales of freedom that they had become lazy and uninteresting – but I’m ready to restart it under a different banner – Movie City USA.

The new site will publish a different type of post every weekday. I look forward to more of DB’s keen film sensibility and devilish wit.

Don’t “Call Curtis”!

Ouch indeed… Sam McManis blogs today about Curtis Carroll, a West Sac resident whose number is one digit away from the main line at CBS13/CW31.

he has recorded the following outgoing message on his home-answering machine:

If you thought you reached Channel 13 or Channel 31, home of adolescent anchoring, juvenile journalism and the worst newscast in the state, you didn’t. You got that number wrong. If you got the right number, leave a message. Thanks.

Why don’t you just tell me the name of the reporter you’d like to scream obscenities at…

Demographic fun from Zillow

I didn’t even think about the fun one could have with the Demographics features on that new Zillow thing until my wife pointed it out. This is how one can learn that Boulevard Park folks are more likely to be females working for non-profits, or speak Gujarati. Or that New Era Park is lesbian-friendly, or that Elmhurst is home to the Humble Class. Or that there is a neighborhood called Brentwood (it’s over near the Exec Airport) that has a freakishly flat age distribution and lots of Puerto Ricans who speak Hindi and Laotian. The possibilities are endless.

Community real estate features on Zillow

Real estate site Zillow.com announced two new community features yesterday, including Neighborhood Pages, which allows residents to create content about their neighborhoods. Not just cities, but neighborhoods, like Alkali Flat or Richmond Grove or Poverty Ridge. And there is a main Sacramento page with one piece of content, a photo by yours truly.

That main page has links to all the covered neighborhoods, so make sure to check yours out.

Like the weather…

Forecasting the weather in Sacramento during the summer months can seem a touch repetitive. Warm this morning, hot in the afternoon, the evening will remain warm. Tomorrow? See today. However, if you are an Internet junkie like me you have no doubt been frustrated with the poor level of detail provided online. That’s not to say that there aren’t enough resources online or 5 day forecasts with sun icons lined up back to back. But, when I am searching the Internet for weather forecasting I’m basically looking for a “cut to the chase” sentence or two. Well, my friends, I have found such a sentence or two at kcra.com. As always, I must disclaim that I’m never first on the scene with anything technology related so please forgive me if this is old news.

Continue reading “Like the weather…”

Google’s free SMS service is for real

I’m always about 6 months to 18 years late to the technology game. As such I am just now getting my cellular phone hooked up with SMS (Short Messaging Service), or “texting” as the kids like to call it. And while I am still fumbling about with my opposable thumbs and my text messaging shorthand (AAMOF, I’m a total NUB…or something), I have come across a free service from Google that is quite handy.

Google SMS allows you to text a search query to 466453(“GOOGLE” on most devices) and your results will be sent back to you in a matter of seconds. It’s really quite nifty. The site offers up a cheat sheet of search terms you can use (Local weather, restaurants, flight updates, movie times, calculator, and even conversions) and the whole thing is free (you know, you have to have the text messaging service from your cellular provider, of course).

So the next time you are out and about and need some quick directions or a movie time close to you, give it a shot. Now, if they just made cell phones that could take pictures I’d be all set!

Tied to the Wiki post

The current issue of the News & Review features Sacwiki.org, the newly launched wiki site from the guys who made Daviswiki.org. This should be a swell resource for useful and questionable information about our fair city.

Other than reading Wikipedia, I have never been a big wiki guy myself, so I don’t know the etiquette… is it typical to create a new page about your “thing” or is that a no-no?