Over the past month I’ve been playing around with different headers and colors. I’m happy to say that I’m pleased with the current layout. =]

Here’s a look back on the past two variations:

After using Hotmail for a couple years when I was younger I discovered Gmail and have been a fan ever since. Today Gmail released integrated themes which makes me a little happy that I won’t be looking at the same bland color scheme anymore. Take a look at the options (Credit: Official Gmail Blog): 

I’ve got my eye on the notepad or beachy looking theme. Unfortunately the Themes tab is still not showing up under my settings, but hopefully soon. On the Official Gmail Blog it has been stated, ”To customize your inbox, go to the Themes tab under Settings. We’ll be rolling out themes to everyone over the next couple of days, so if you don’t see them yet, check back soon. As for which theme to choose, don’t ask us. We’re neutral ;)“.

Ah-ha! The Google Mobile iPhone App with search-by-voice is available via the iTunes store now. I downloaded it last night and began playing around with it. I can definitely see it coming handy while being in the car trying to find restaurants in the area or looking up something I can’t figure out.

When I opened the App I was greeted by this boy, I’m assuming he’s hungry for a cheeseburger:

Then I hit the “Voice Search” button and got the “Speak now” screen:

After that it tells you that the App is working and then pops up with the search results. It’s really as easy as they have made it out to be.

It has been a hectic week. Election day, my grandmother was sick, a good friend got in a wreck, and I’ll be off to the beach for the weekend in a little bit. Shhhwoo. I’m in need of some relaxation time before Turkey Day. =)

On the 4th I did get a chance to go out early to take some peektures:

Over the past couple of days I’ve been trying to figure out why my site’s been running slow. I thought it might have to do with Dreamhost since they’ve been going through recent problems. After adding Firebug on FireFox I found out the stall was happening with the Revver plugin I had installed and activated. As soon as I deactivated it my backend was back to normal, and within a couple minutes my site was also back up to speed.

I realized after doing this that I had tried to visit Revver earlier and it had failed to open. My question now is: Did Revver finally just fall off the face of the internet for good? I hope not, because I liked the set-up they had. Plus, they owe me a measly $20 that’d I’d like to buy a cover for my iPhone with. I’m sure that other video publishers that use Revver are hurting and more nervous than I am.

A comment on NewTeeVee’s post “Revver Site Having Problems” by AaronCook stated: “Revver owes me over $200 dollars for my videos. Will I ever see that money? Hmm, I kinda doubt it at this point. But the fault really lies on the shoulders of LiveUniverse. They’re apparently not releasing the money (if they even have it) and the Revver employees and forum moderators are left with their hands tied, trying their best to keep the video creators calm - some of whom are owed more than $2,500.”

TechCrunch posted about the outage and had an update claiming that what Revver users are experiencing is a  “major migration from a CDN/provider to a tier 1 & top technology provider.”

Here is my message to you, Revver: I’m glad I deactivated you because you were causing many problems for me, but will you actually be back up at some point? I’m hoping yes, and that you’ll be back stronger. I hope you start forking out some money to us publishers out here, and next time you decide to go offline won’t you warn your users like you normally do? You do have great potential.

Erm, we’ll see what happens. =]

I found an article on CNN.com by Dr. Sanjay Gupta titled “The Secret to Living to 100“, leading me to take the quiz on Livingto100.com.

“The Living to 100 Life Expectancy Calculator uses the most current and carefully researched medical and scientific data in order to estimate how old you will live to be. Most people score in their late eighties… how about you?”

After answering 40 short questions related to my health and family history, I was told that my calculated life expectancy is 94 years. =]

The reason I like this site so much is after the quiz you get personalized feedback and a list of things you can do differently to add years on to your life.

This morning free AT&T WiFi for iPhone users is confirmed by this free text message from AT&T saying:

Exciting! The AT&T website claims that “they know what’s hot”. Apparently they do! iPhone users can receive Wi-Fi from places like airports, hotels, universities, convention centers, sports centers, Starbucks locations that are equipped with a hotspot, restaurants, bookstores, and even SUPERMARKETS!

Users can access the Wi-Fi by:

• Activating Wi-Fi from settings
• Select “attwifi” from available networks
• Entering the 10-digit cell number, and checking agree to a Acceptable Use Policy
• Upon receiving a text messing with a secure link it’s just a click away

Note: That particular link is only valid for 24 hours. Find out more at www.att.com/attwifi.

[Photo by Dave Fatella]

The Great Pumpkin House can be found at 748 Beech Street in Kenova, West Virginia. Ric Griffith, the owner, and many volunteers carve over 3,000 pumpkins for display at his home every halloween. With 3,000 designs they have incorporated themes throughout the yard, including Christmas, the alphabet, patriotic and of course Halloween. The main attraction is the wall of pumpkins that have instruments carved into them, making up a “pumpkin orchestra”. The pumpkins are synced with a computer program that lights up the instruments that are heard in the song played.

Griffith said to The Parthenon, “It is funny to see people clap after the songs are over, they are pumpkins, not actual people playing.”

A video of the “pumpkin orchestra” taken last year:

More photos by Dave Fatella can be found here.