Mike Hall: For Sale

So for those of you that don’t know this. I have the most amazing and spectacular fiance in the world. She literally rocks my socks off. I love her so very much. So my birthday is on January 28th and this year I truly had a fantastic one. So I have needed a new phone for a while now and Nikki, being the phenominal woman that she is, knew that I not only needed a new phone but that I’m a kind of picky person. I just love to have all sorts of amazing gizmos and gadgets a plenty. So yes, Nikki gave me the killer G1 for my birthday! Talk about incredible, I know!

So that was one of the first things that made my birthday great this year. Then… I also got a refresh on my hosting from my parents. They also gave me ‘Star Wars: The Force Unleashed’ for the Wii. Talk about exciting I know! Oh and my family always has a birthday dinner for each of us kids on our birthday. That’s when they gave all this jazz. So I had my Mom’s amazing lasagna and my favorite kind of cake… can you guess? Yup, German Choloclate. Yum. Then I also went to dinner with a bunch of my friends. We went to Red Lobster. Delicious as always. Thank you to all who came and to those who couldn’t make it I’m sorry. Maybe next year. But I just wanted to shout out to all my friends who made my birthday wonderful. And thank you for all the gifts. You all know who you are. I just had to tell the world that I have some of the greatest friends I could ever ask for.

So… that’s ma birthday this year. I can’t believe it but I am twenty three years old. Gawsh, I never thought it would come. For those of you that can appreciate the G1 stay tuned. I’ll be blogging shortly about some of my favorite features and apps. Thanks again to all you all. I love.

So I usually wouldn’t say anything but today I just can’t help myself. Now I’m sure a few of you people out there have heard of this company called Google. Now I’m a fan of Google, I’m no Google hater, not at all actually. (I really would like a G1 to anyone that is feeling generous!) But as a web designer I just have to say that they can’t make up there hugging minds when it comes to their favicon. Now for those of you saying oh boy, here goes Mike, talking about one of his stupid, lame, even little things (Nikki, I’m looking at you…) you’re right! It is kind of lame and kind of stupid but hey, that me. Love me or leave me (except you Nikki… please love me anyway!).

So… a favicon is that little tiny icon that you see at the top of your browser (yes, if you haven’t figured it out yet I am going to link to things that I don’t think some people will know, like a browser…) It looks something like this!

So… It just so happens that Google has recently changed their favicon and then shortly after that, they’ve changed it again! And guess what! Yup, they then changed it again. I just think it’s kind of funny that Google can’t seem to make up their mind. Now granted, I do understand that the web is always evolving and everyone has to update everything else all the time… but I just think that Google goes a little overboard when it come to their favicon. Here are the last two favicons and their new one…

Now I do think they are improving but I just think they need to pick and stick! Those are only three of the many that they have tried. Time to find a solution Google!

Alright, that is enough about that. Really it isn’t important at all. Just thought I’d share it with you all. Oh and also, if anyone is looking for a USB flash drive, here is a 16GB for $20 - http://is.gd/f1Fz. Sorry for your time I wasted! Ha!

Well it’s time to start school once again. I’m still going to UVU and I really am loving it! It is such a fantastic place. I’m pretty excited for this semester because I don’t have to worry about any ‘required’ classes. Yep yep yep, I get to just take a bunch of classes that I want to. So… I’m taking Web Design, Digital Photography, Project Management and Introduction to Writing for the Stage and Screen. Oh and an internship course for work credit. So all in all I’ll have sixteen credits this semester. Pretty exciting. I start on Wednesday. Wish me luck! Now I just have to try and find all of my books for cheap as can be.

Oh! I’ve had this for a while just thought I would upload it…
For all of you fellow designers out there that have ever looked for vector images of UVU’s logos I have a belated Christmas present for you! I have them compiled for you. Just click your preference below to download. Enjoy!

AI | EPS | PDF

According to Gizmodo, the following is a list “50 Skills Every Geek Should Have.” Now usually I’m not one to brag but I thought that this would be fun to see what all I have accomplished on this list. I’m torn as to whether I should be proud or sad… well… I’ll take proud. So have a look, here is how I measure up to Gizmodo’s standards. I hope some of you can find this interesting and to those of you that don’t (Nikki) well… you can just roll your eyes and stop reading now. Your welcome, you have been spared. Alright, on to the list, as I said before, I am proud to say I have achieved 41 out of these 50 various skills. Enjoy.

1. Install a hard drive in a laptop
2. Perform a clean OS install on a machine with two OSes
3. Swap out the battery on your iPod/iPhone
4. Jailbreak an iPhone
5. Wire your house for Ethernet and Coax cable
6. Use BitTorrent and RSS to automatically download new shows from trackers
7. Use an A/V receiver to its fullest capability (every port is taken)
8. Calibrate an HDTV without the manual
9. Use a DSLR in full manual mode
10. Hack the encryption and mooch your neighbor’s Wi-Fi
11. Solder cleanly enough to get around a circuit board
12. Use your 3G phone as a Wi-Fi access point
13. Shove the guts of a modern game console into a retro game console
14. Design a webpage in HTML by hand that features a picture of your cat
15. Use Photoshop to imperceptibly doctor a photo
16. Abstain from buying extended warranties
17. Know where to buy cheap cables and accessories
18. Fix your parents’ computer over the phone without looking at a computer
19. Enter the Konami code
20. Comment on Gizmodo from your phone
21. Type quickly using T9 texting
22. Program a universal remote
23. Contribute code to the Linux kernel
24. Hide porn from your significant other
25. Avoid DRM on everything
26. Know how to back up your data to networked storage—and actually do it
27. Watch TV shows on the internet for free
28. Edit together digital video ripped from YouTube
29. Play any SNES game on your computer through an emulator
30. Reset expired trial software by messing with the registry
31. Hackintosh your PC
32. Download pre-release movies from Usenet
33. Hack the Wii to play homebrew games
34. Get around web content filters on public computers
35. Get into a Windows computer if you forgot your password
36. Securely erase your data so it can’t be recovered
37. Share a printer between a Mac and a PC on a network
38. Build a fighting robot
39. Write your own Firefox plugins
40. Navigate and reorganize the files on your computer in DOS
41. Get something on the front page of Digg
42. Get through to executive customer service
43. Rip a CD to V0 quality MP3s
44. Rip a DVD to DivX
45. Build your own computer from parts
46. Swap out the hard drive in your DVR for a bigger one
47. Get an NES cartridge working again by blowing in it
48. Calibrate a 7.1 surround-sound system
49. Play downloaded games on a Nintendo DS
50. Talk about things that aren’t tech related

I don’t know about everyone else out there but I am definelty ultra obsessive compulsive about my music collection. I always insist on having the best quality and best organized collection I possibly can. One of the hardest things to do is find quality album art work or cover art for your albums… enter Album Art Exchange. You can find them at http://albumartexchange.com and it has been my savior many times when looking for album art. So go and take a look all of you people out there that, like me, insist upon utter and complete music library perfection.

Today I found this nifty little QR code generator. For those of you that don’t know…

“A QR Code is a matrix code (or two-dimensional bar code) created by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994. The “QR” is derived from “Quick Response”, as the creator intended the code to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed. QR Codes are common in Japan where they are currently the most popular type of two dimensional code.” - Wikipedia

Anyway, I just think that these are awesome little ways to communicate and get messages across. I really think that this technology should be incorporated into more aspects of daily life. There are so many things that people can do with these codes. Anyway, I just wanted to go off for a second here this morning. You can make your own QR codes at http://qrcode.kaywa.com/ check it out!
I think I’m going to make a bumper sticker or something out of one. I’ll letcha know when and if I do.

For those of you that aren’t aware… Firefox just simply rocks my socks. It’s the best browser out there and guess what! Tomorrow they are going to set a world record for number of downloads. So tomorrow everyone should go and download the latest and greatest… Firefox 3. Click Here to check it all out! Pledge away!

I’m a huge lover of Slurpees and today I bumped into SlurpeeFlavors.com, you can search for flavors, update what flavors are at your local stores and simply be a part of Slurpee lovers worldwide. Checker out!

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Yes yes, Adobe has yet again done something I love them for. They are giving Flex Builder 3 Professional to students for free… free you ask? Yes! Free! I know I know, I didn’t believe it either but I sent in a picture of my student ID (took it with my phone, looked like poop) and they sent me my registration key today! Amazing I know! Anyway, so all you web design buddies of mine, if you didn’t already know about this go get it. Here’s the link: http://flexregistration.com/
I’m taking a class right now on Flex, I’ve really fallen in love with it. I’m excited to play with it more and more in the upcoming weeks, months, and years! Enjoy!

It has been time for me to blog about something for a while now so Voicemail is it. I’ve been loving on Voicemail for a couple of months now. In my (very serious and notable) opinion I think that Voicemail is currently the best online comedy series. So go, go and check out ABC’s Voicemail. If it doesn’t bring a smile to your face then you are a lame and boring human being (my apologies to those that are lame and boring).
Again, Voicemail is a weekly ‘online original series’ following a man named Michael through his day-to-day routine, the story is told through his voicemail messages. Check out full episodes of Voicemail at http://dynamic.abc.go.com/streaming/landing.

Below is a clip of (I believe) the first short from the first episode. Enjoy!

Oh and P.S. Thanks to my friends Brooks and Phil I have come across my current favorite YouTube video. The prize goes to Johnson Automotive…