I'll be honest, as much as I love reading my Facebook newsfeed to see what group my friends joined, or the political candidate they now support, Scrabulous is really the main reason I login to Facebook every day. I found today's article on the Scrabulous server upgrade rather amusing. Must have been a slow news day at the Times.

Like most fanatical Scrabble players, devotees of Scrabulous, a Scrabble-like application on Facebook, hate to be interrupted. So players are breathing easier since an upgrade last week intended to ensure that matches load more quickly.

The improvement came in response to the booming popularity of the application, which lets Facebook members to play one another online. According to the site, Scrabulous has upwards of half a million daily users.

[...]

Jayant’s enthusiasm for the online game has not dulled his love of the face-to-face experience of the original. He recently came in first in his age group in a local Scrabble competition.

“Scrabble has a charm of its own because you’re playing with close friends or family members,” he said. “But the thing is, as in everything in the world, people don’t find time to be with their family, to find two hours to play. Most people have Scrabble in their attic gathering dust, so the application helps people play and stay connected.”

[...]

Through Scrabulous, “we have managed to reach a lot of people who have never played the game,” said Rajat, who is 26. “Some even ask us questions about how to play Scrabulous because they’re not familiar with it. Once we’ve explained it to them, they come back and say, ‘It’s a great thing and we have to buy the original version to play with our family offline.’”

Prior to playing Scrabulous on Facebook, I think I played Scrabble maybe once or twice in my life. Pathetic, I know, but when it came time to play a board game, I usually opted for Monopoly or Risk (I don't care what you think, Rian...alliances are totally acceptable).

Posted by Lindsay at 08:02 PM | Permalink | Comments? (0) | TrackBacks (0) |  Subscribe in a reader |

Google is the greatest corporation EVER. They provide me with the best web-based e-mail on the market, a wonderful news site to keep track of my favorite topics, an awesome feed aggregator, analytical tools for this website, an online word processor, and driving directions so that I don't get lost trying to navigate this region's bizarre freeway system (still, I usually manage to make a few wrong turns and end up in, like, Pennsylvania). Sometimes, Google even deposits money into my bank account.

And now I can login to my AOL Instant Messenger account (which I haven't done in like a year) while in GMail and chat with my friends who are using either service. I will now revert to my college habit of keeping AIM and GMail on 24/7 for no real reason whatsoever, other than to support my favorite utility, PEPCO.

Posted by Lindsay at 11:14 PM | Permalink | Comments? (2) | TrackBacks (0) |  Subscribe in a reader |

Yeah, that's right. This bloated website, which is like an SUV on the information superhighway due to my habit of uploading ungodly amounts of images, is officially "carbon neutral."

Apparently, Dreamhost, the wonderful SoCal based company that hosts this website, is now purchasing offsets for the 2725 tons of CO2 they emit every year.

This means that I can drive the XTerra a bit more, knowing that the carbon produced by lindsayfincher.com is being offset by the good techs over at Dreamhost. Thanks, guys.

When you put a button on, it's official!!

Posted by Lindsay at 11:44 PM | Permalink | Comments? (2) | TrackBacks (0) |  Subscribe in a reader |

As you can see, I decided to change up this website a little bit. I was getting bored of all the white space that was being wasted, and I've wanted a three column layout for a while. I built my stylesheet using the Movable Type Style Generator and got the basic three column layout from there as well. It still took me effin' forever to do this. Well, not really...but it was a pain in the ass to wade through a bunch of code because I ended up changing a lot of it. And this is still a work in progress...

This layout should look fine on a resolution of 1024x768 or higher, which most of you have. I know this because my website stats report tells me this, along with your preferred internet browser, current address, social security number, and the name of your first born child. Kidding, of course...I would have to pay extra for the first born child report.

Anyways, let me know if you come across any errors while you're browsing. I still need to make a few rotating banners like my last layout had, but for now you are stuck with the boring ol' "MOCKBA" banner.

(Here's your Russian lesson for the day: MOCKBA = "Moskva" in Cyrillic, the Russian alphabet. Moskva is what Russians call Moscow. Pretty cool, huh? Now you don't have to ask, "Lindsay, why does your sweatshirt say 'mokba'?")

Posted by Lindsay at 11:48 PM | Permalink | Comments? (7) | TrackBacks (0) |  Subscribe in a reader |

Everything has finally been moved over to the new host. I'm with Dreamhost now and really like them so far...TONS of storage space and fast servers, what more could you want?

I've also upgraded to Movable Type 3.2 and Gallery 2.0.

In other news, it's Halloween today and we haven't had ANY trick-or-treaters. This neighborhood sucks. It's full of angry old people who won't open the gates, so no kids come in to take all this candy off of our hands. Even the kids that live here don't trick-or-treat in the neighborhood! God, this place is dull.

Posted by Lindsay at 07:31 PM | Permalink | Comments? (0) | TrackBacks (0) |  Subscribe in a reader |

This site has been running pretty slowly lately, and I've definitely outgrown my 333MB quota over the past year. I've been looking at Lunarpages, Midphase, Simplehost, and Bluehost. If you have any experience with those companies or know anything about them, let me know.

Posted by Lindsay at 07:21 PM | Permalink | Comments? (4) | TrackBacks (0) |  Subscribe in a reader |

Well, I finally went ahead and updated to Movable Type 3.11. There were a few annoying moments, but it seems that all is well (I hope so, anyways). I also upgraded to Gallery 1.4.4-pl2 (piece of cake), but I'm really looking forward to their release of Gallery 2.0. Next up, I'm going to get rid of my pseudo-Soviet template and replace it with something else...not really sure what that will be, but whatever, I'm getting bored with this design.

If you run across any errors on this site, let me know.

Posted by Lindsay at 01:15 AM | Permalink | Comments? (4) | TrackBacks (0) |  Subscribe in a reader |

I received my Canon A80 digital camera today...wow, I love it already.

Vlad and Tony pose for a picture

Here's the first pictures I took with my A80:
- my dog, Katie
- my backyard

I'm looking forward to using it in DC...got a 256 MB CompactFlash card to go with it. Actually, Amazon.com gave me a free 64mb card, so I've got that one, too.

Now I am in search of a new laptop to take to graduate school. I have been using the same Dell desktop since 1998, and the laptop I bought in 2000 has just about had it. So if you have any suggestions as to which laptop I should buy, let me know...I'm looking for a minimum 512MB RAM, 60GB hard drive, and a DVD-RW. Processor doesn't matter as long as it's not a Celeron.

I'm seriously considering the eMachines M6809: 15.4" Widescreen, Mobile AMD Athlon 64 3200+ processor, 512MB RAM, 80GB hard drive, DVD-RW, etc for $1549. Yeah, an eMachines...never thought I would consider buying an eMachines, but I was impressed with the reviews that the previous model, the M6807, received.

I'm definitely staying away from a Dell, though. My Dell desktop has served me well, but I've got three friends who have had failed hard drives with their Dell laptops, and that's something I'd rather not deal with, thank you very much.

I didn't have to go to work today and I also have tomorrow off...plusgood.

I'll be in DC May 10 - 17 for commencement. No work for an entire week and I get to see all my GW friends...doubleplusgood!

I watched part 1 of NBC's "10.5" (about the big earthquakes that rock the west coast). Methinks tomorrow we shall see the Coachella Valley wiped off the face of the earth...be sure to tune in!

Posted by Lindsay at 11:06 PM | Permalink | Comments? (7) | TrackBacks (0) |  Subscribe in a reader |

We finally got DSL at my house. I setup a wireless network so now my brother and I no longer have to fight over the internet connection. Ahhhh fast internet is heavenly...it's like being back at good ol' GDub, minus all the work.

Remember, kids:

Posted by Lindsay at 11:08 PM | Permalink | Comments? (0) | TrackBacks (0) |  Subscribe in a reader |

Before I left for Moscow in late June, I was going to install Moveable Type. Didn't happen...so when I got back I said that I would install MT and upload my Moscow pics. Obviously, that didn't happen either. Now I have all the time in the world, though, and actually got around to replacing that horrible NewsPro posting software. It really sucked...I think the company went out of business or something, too.

Now I just have to work on replacing this horrible default template. Yay, white is such an exciting color!

Posted by Lindsay at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Comments? (0) | TrackBacks (0) |  Subscribe in a reader |