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if you read this blog (and the boring non-technical stuff) you'll remember that where i live they had been filming a movie called 'the kingdom' with jaime foxx and jennifer garner (among others).  well, the trailer is now available.  i'm seriously amazed at how real the movie looks given that i saw the set and how it was constructed -- filmmakers and set producers and cinematographers are amazing.

anyway, here's some pics...

this one is jaimee foxx on the Red Mountain 202 freeway in north mesa:

this one is actually on the set that was by my house:

you can watch the trailer here.  the opening part in the trailer is the set that was build -- it's all a facade.  the airport scene?  that's .  the scene right after that showing the building exploded -- same set after they tore it up; freeway scenes with car explosions?  loop 202 in arizona.

pretty exciting to see it in action now, can't wait for the movie.

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okay, well technically, where's when you need him?  i live in a city called queen creek, arizona...which for most of the time had been a small farming community.  within the past 4 years it has boomed along with the real estate industry in the east side of the greater phoenix, arizona areas.  and now i feel it is a modern day footloose movie area!

it's a great city, still has some small-town feel (which i like), and we have an awesome neighborhood.  still the town is experiencing growing pains.

aside from the city growing pains, there is a pretty resistant neighborhood for certain typse of lifestyle, and apparently dancing is one of them :-).

queen creek spans two counties, pinal and maricopa (maricopa is the largest county).  well, in the pinal side of things, there is a place called , which is a restaurant and outdoor entertainment area.  i must say that i despise country music...i just don't like it.  but *any* music live is great as it brings a level of excitement regardless of what you are doing.  san tan flat is also a good family place (aside from the smoking still allowed, which i'm not sure why as arizona just passed a no public smoking ordinance).  each table has its own fireplace and you can bring in your own s'mores fixings, etc.  a LOT of families frequent the place (they kick anyone <21 out at 11pm).  a group of friends of ours go there sometimes as well to kick back, have fun and dance (well, i don't dance, that was in my pre-nup).

well, it seems the city received some complaints and the residents are pulling out the dated laws to try to get rid of san tan flat.  as reported 12 news, you can read the official complaint here (link to the city complaint and a video about the story).  apparently they (pinal county) found a loophole in that dancing is only allowed in enclosed areas -- and san tan flat is an open area outside.

it's re-friggin-diculous and really makes me think of footloose.  we went there last night and there were 'beware of the dance police' signs all over the place.  all we want to do is have a good time.  you can't hear anything from a neighboring area in my opinion as the flat is almost in the middle of nowhere -- and there isn't any traffic issues either ever since we've been going.

someone has their undershorts on too tight and needs to get a grip on reality.  it's a fun place, it's fun entertainment...get a life pinal county!  i hope san tan flat can succeed in their quest...otherwise i'm calling ren!

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there's been a lot of buzz around google checkout, especially since some merchants are essentially giving you money to use it.  at the surface, google checkout looks to be like a federated identity/payment service.

sound familiar?  it should.  microsoft tried this with passport (and some would argue mswallet).  so what is different?  well, in true comparison, not much.  i'm not talking about a technical implementation because we have to remove that from the argument...most users don't care about the technical implementation.

what it comes down to for a service like this is trust.  in this case, google has established themselves as a trusted vendor for merchant transactions.  how?  i have no idea.  they have yet to sell anything.  but because they have succeeded on many fronts, it is no surprise that people would have no problem trying out and inevitably using their federated identity/checkout service...especially if they are getting money to do it.

i have no real point here of course.  i'm not going to point out that microsoft tried this before and although it wasn't successful it was the same idea.  i'm not going to talk about how federated identity has been around for a while.  i'm not going to talk about how a concept of a 'single account' might have been a good idea...i might have even nicknamed mine snowstorm or something like that.  nope, no comment here.

bottom line: free money + trusted name == anyone willing to try it.  i'd love to see numbers on their uptake of the checkout.  i looked hard but couldn't find a "beta" notation next to their google checkout logo -- so congrats guys on finally getting a second product out there.

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got a windows mobile phone?  don't want to wait until the official daylight savings time patch is available?  check out edgeblog's patch.  due to an energy act, daylight savings is changing in 2007.  this affects all technology vendors, including microsoft.  while a patch is available for windows, there is not yet one available for windows mobile, but the above patch essentially changes the registry to make it fixed.

UPDATE: added missing link

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i'm all for advertising your brand, etc.  but when it impacts my ability to use an application/website, it makes me mad.

take msnbc mobile for example...50 vertical pixels wasted:

winmob1

a huge banner ad for windows mobile.  here's my questions:

  1. shouldn't the site know i'm already using windows mobile?
  2. shouldn't it know my device capabilities and realize that they just wasted my screen space
  3. what would msnbc publishers think that i can't even see the top headline...

this site has turned from a news site to a banner ad...hey anyone on msnbc listening?