Friday—I spent Friday night at Bailey’s Chocolate Bar and f15teen in downtown St. Louis.  The desserts at the Chocolate Bar were amazing. F15teen on the other hand put on a poor show.  I love that it is smoke free, but the DJ was not very good.  What do you get when you combine a good 80s song with techno beats?  Crap.  Next week, we will be at 80s night at Rue13.  They know how to roll the 80s music.

Z.O.U—”What does the “N” on the Nebraska helmet stand for?  Knowledge.”  Rengel proudly boasted as Mizzou put the final touches on their 52-17 win over Nebraska.  Neither Bo Pelini’s shutout remarks nor Nebraska’s saliva could prevent Mizzou from routing the once great program.  The next two weeks will be the big test for Mizzou as they face number 17 OK State and number 5 Texas.

Sunday—Sunday is just not the same without a disappointing Ram’s loss.  I spent some of the day watching football and some of the day walking McNair park.

Fantasy Watch—Both my fantasy teams should hit 5-0 this week.  But, it looks like the smithfactory might be in trouble.  We were a little too lean, and the injuries are starting to pile up.  It looks like the coach is on the hot seat.

Investment Advice—With the economy the way it is, my suggestion is to invest in hard assets—HDTVs, sports cars, etc.  If hyperinflation hits, you can always flip them on e-bay and pay off your mortgage.

That is all for the week. Congrats to my troll oldangerous on getting married.

Now that I got the politics out of the way, I thought I would go back to something a bit more interesting (to me, at least)—the Xbox360 Dashboard Update. If you have been living under a rock (or just not the computer nerd type), you would know that the Xbox 360 dashboard is getting a remix.  You can read all about the updates on engadget.  To summarize, the dashboard will look like the one pictured above.  Not only does it get a new look, but it also gets access to Netflix.  This is pretty big deal considering the only ways to access Netflix from your couch is via a DVD, the roku, or a media center PC.  The update also provides the ability to create some pretty robust avatars, which my girlfriend is sure to like (she loves creating avatars on the Wiiiii).

I am pretty excited about the update, but I would like to see more.  So, I compiled a quick list of what I would like to see.

Zune Marketplace Integration—Yes, I have a Zune and frankly I love it.  So, it is no surprise that I would love to see the Zune Marketplace brought to the Xbox 360.  In fact, I think it is perfect for the 360.    The points are shared across both platforms and both have a strong focus on multimedia.  Also, I think syncing the Zune to the Xbox would make a lot more sense in the long run.  Having the Zune experience in my living room would add to the incentive to finally purchase the Zune “all-you-can-eat” music pass.  It would essentially create a live jukebox with access to several million songs.  Rocking out to the channels in the 3.0 software would be pretty cool in my living room, as well.

Third-party Application Marketplace—The Netflix integration is pretty much a third-party app, so why not open the system up to a marketplace, ala the Iphone Appstore?  You would essentially do for the TV, what the Iphone has done for the portable device.  This would create the first multimedia platform for the TV that developers can have access to.  An app store on the 360 would be a huge competitive advantage.  This would overnight put the system far above the Wii, PS3, and AppleTV.  And, the possibility for Apps are endless—Pandora, Last.fm, Facebook, and Twitter, etc.

Web Browser—This is my final request.  Why not integrate a web browser into the device?  You have made attempts in the past at a web-enabled TV box.  Remember the MSN (or web) TV?  Don’t let past failures haunt you.  The Xbox 360 is a good platform to have a browser on.

I am sure I could think of more additions to the system, but Zune Marketplace Integration, a third-party application marketplace, and a web browser are tops on my list.  What would you like to see?

When I got home from class last night, I decided to stay up late and watch some of the VP debate.  I only got through about an hour, so this is kind of a half-analysis of what I saw.

Palin—Based on her Katie Couric interviews, I expected Palin to fail miserably in the debates.  To my surprise, she wasn’t that bad.  She was extremely personable and was able to mention a number of facts and quotes when applicable to the debate. I think she even won a few rounds by calling out Biden’s earlier contempt in the primaries for Obama’s voting record on the war.

With that said, I had read the article What it’s like to debate Sarah Palin before the debates, so I had an idea of what was coming.  For me, it wasn’t a surprise when she did not answer questions directly and related tough questions to a personal story.  When she played coy with the audience saying “it’s so obvious I’m a Washington outsider”, I did not buy it.  I guess that when you know how a magician performs a trick, the trick is not as impressive.

Biden—Biden, on the other hand, was exactly what I had expected.  He was well prepared and his command of existing policy, relevant statistics, and Obama’s platform were impressive.  I think he did a pretty good job of connecting with the audience and made a big win when he said “No one making less than $250,000 under Barack Obama’s plan will see one single penny of their tax raised whether it’s their capital gains tax, their income tax, investment tax, any tax.”  This statement was quite memorable and I think it really helped dispel the “raising taxes” myth that is being sold to the middle class.

My only bad remark about Biden’s performance is kind of an odd one.  I thought his smile was a bit odd.  For me, it did not seem genuine and at times took away from his performance.

Issues—In terms of energy and the environment, I tend to side with the Democrats in this election.  I do not think “drill, baby, drill” is a good solution to energy independence.  I believe that renewable solutions are more viable in the long-term.  I do think that the environmental changes we are seeing as part of global warming are caused by man’s action.   Palin said nothing to change my views on any of these items.  And, Biden was quite effective defending Obama’s platform in this area.  For me, Biden was the clear winner here.

In terms of the economy, both parties favor strong regulation on Wall Street and a bailout, so this is pretty much a push.  If you read my post on treating government like a business, you probably would have guessed that I appreciated Palin’s statement “Government is going to have to learn to be more efficient and live with less if that’s what it takes to reign in the government growth”.  This statement was a win for Palin in my eyes.  With that said, I think one of the major contributors to growth is the war in Iraq.  As a result, I would side with Biden’s argument that we need a definite time table for withdrawal from Iraq.  I would also side with Biden that the middle class needs help.  Overall, I give a slight advantage to Biden and Obama on the economy because I do think we need to withdraw from Iraq and better support the middle class. But I do agree with Palin that government needs to become leaner and meaner.

I am not going to go through each issue, because for me the biggest issues facing our country in the next four years are the economy, the war in Iraq, and the environment.  This is what I am voting on this year.

Conclusion—To make the conclusion short and sweet, Biden won this debate.  And after the first two debates, I am in the Obama corner because I believe his policy toward the environment, the war in Iraq, and the economy are better developed and more viable.  I do give credit to Palin for a good show and her insightful statement about improving efficiency in the government.  However, I think that the McCain ticket needs to better develop this platform to convince me to move into his corner.

At lunch, I started reading about the multi-monitor taskbar for Windows 7 (the next version of Windows).   It reminded me of the demo they showed at D6 that got people talking about the possibility of a new taskbar in Windows 7.  Internally, they call the new taskbar the “superbar”.  That got me thinking…what would make the taskbar in Windows 7 “super” in my eyes?

Organization—For me the taskbar is all about organization.  For the next version of the taskbar,  I would like to be able to drag-and-drop the tasks (open window boxes) like I can drag tabs in the browser.  This would allow me to arrange the tasks in the taskbar as I choose.  Now, this might seem like an unnecessary feature off-hand, but when you work on a computer all day, you start to get use to things being in a certain order.  I often find myself opening applications in a specific order during the day simply so I can stay efficient. This would solve a lot of problems with the current implementation.  The article mentioned above mentioned the problem of determining where tasks fell.  Why not simply allow the user to drag the tasks onto the monitor of his or her choice?

On the same note, I would also like to form impromptu activity groups by simply dragging one task onto another.  This would allow me to group activities based on open windows.  Also, it would be nice if when I dragged one task onto another, the resulting group would change appearance (possibly color) to denote that I have created an activity group.  Of course, if I can reorder my open window boxes on the taskbar, I would expect to be reorder boxes in the group as well.

My final “want” in the area of organization is to simply be able to “quick sort” my open tasks.  To do this I would simply right-click on the taskbar and choose sort.  You could sort by when the taskbar was opened, the name of the active document, the name of the application, etc.  Of course, I would definitely want a way to go back to my original organization after I did a quick sort.  Sorting does not fall as high on my list as rearranging and grouping, but I think it would be a plus.

Configuration—In Windows 7, I would like more configuration options for the taskbar.  The first place I would start with is appearance.  I should be able to configure the taskbar to look-and-feel exactly how I want.  In Vista, the default bar looks nice, but you cannot change the color at all.  It really annoys me that I can change the color of the Windows, but the taskbar stays gray.  Not only do I think I should change the color, but I think that I should be able to add patterns or anything I choose to the background of the taskbar.  Not only is this a big benefit to the consumer, but I see a huge potential here for the Microsoft’s partners, as well.  If an industrial designer for HP or Sony decides that their hardware design might look better with a slightly transparent white taskbar, they would be able to ship that with the product by default.

In addition to color and backgrounds for the taskbar, I would also like to be able to configure the size of the taskbar.  If I don’t want it to cover the whole bottom (or top) of the screen, I should be able to pull it from its position and size it to my liking.  While I dislike a lot about OSX’s dock, I think it might be cool to have my Window’s taskbar float in certain circumstances.

Interactions—I think that this would be a more “experimental” feature.  But, I would like to see my tasks have some built-in interactions.  For example, if I had my Zune software open, I think the task should have a little interaction indicator that when I click on it, it expands the task to incorporate some simple audio playback options.  Of course, this could be a slippery slope when it comes to overcrowding the taskbar.  But, I think if you give the user the option to turn these interactions on and off, it could be a cool feature.

Incremental Improvements—Finally, I would suggest just some simply, incremental improvements to the taskbar.  It has to be fast.  So, I think that Windows 7 should aim to make any new features of the taskbar available to every “vista-capable” machine.  I would also like to see the search improved a little.  At times, when I have duplicate folders it is difficult to distinguish which folder I want to open.  I am also not sure if Vista allows search within documents, but Windows 7 definitely should.  For me, this isn’t a big improvement, but if it was there I would use it.

Wrap up—So, there you have it. A superbar for me would enable better organization, would be fully configurable, and provide some cool new interactions.  What would you like to see?

The weekend wrap-up is a bit late this week.  So, I will keep it short and sweet.  

Cards and 80s Music—If anything would define this summer, it was watching the Cardinals and dancing to 80s music at Rue13.  This weekend we ended the summer like we started it.  We went to the Cardinals game and ended the night at Rue13.  It is always a fun time and look forward to doing it again next summer.  By the way, my favorite 80s song, the Safety Dance, was not played. 

Bachelor Party—On Saturday, I hit up the oldangerous bachelor party.  Well, night 3 of his bachelor party. I am still feeling the effects. Congrats, TJ!

Taste of STL—I ended the weekend at the Taste of St. Louis.  Congrats Caitlin on winning the Bread Company Sandwich Showdown!  Look for her Greek Sandwich in Bread Company stores soon.  I can’t remember the name of it, so someone needs to put it in the comments.  I suggested the name Lightning Bolt, but apparently that did not stick.

That is about it for this weekend.  

Update:  You can catch Eric’s version of the events here.  I totally forgot that we saw Everclear in concert.  They really disllike Sarah Palin.

Inspired by the Bank of America club at the ballbark, here is my recipe for Super Nachos. I know, I know—I am a culinary genious.  

Ingredients:
Nacho Chips
Nacho Cheese
Shredded Beef topped with barbecue sauce
Onions
Tomatoes
Macaroni and Cheese

Directions:
1. Place chips on plate
2. Add ingredients to taste

Nutritional Information: A delicious coronary on a plate.

Over lunch, I spent some time reading about the proposed $700B (apparently a made-up number) bailout that Paulson and our genious president are trying to pass through Congress.  There seems to be two sides of the fence:  let the banks go bankrupt or concede and support the bailout.  The problem is that we find ourselves in a vicious cycle caught between low consumer confidence, housing woes, and deleveraging.

As Miron points out, it was primarily the policy of our government that got us into this mess.  They enabled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to take on unnecessary risk by dramatically increasing the amount of money available to sub-prime lenders.  Other banks followed suit in a high-level get rich quick scheme.  When the economy started to slow, dominos started to fall.  People lost jobs and began defaulting on their loans.

There are two ways to look at this problem: (1) what caused the banks to fail, and (2) what caused the economy to slow. If we look at what caused the banks to fail, it appears the problem was greed.  Not all banks have failed.  The ones that were fiscally irresponsible and over invested in junk real-estate failed.  The government did facilitate this failing with poor policy, but in the end the banks are to blame.  But this problem, has a second side to it.  The failings of the banks are partially due to the failings of our economy.  What caused our economy to fail?  I would posit that the failings in our economy are due to the huge deficit and over-extending our debt to fight a war with little to no economic benefits.  I also think we are experiencing an economic bull whip caused by the growth of the global economy.  Because of the ridiculously cheap labor from foreign competition, US businesses have been forced to ship low-to-medium income jobs overseas.  This has left a gash in our middle class.  These people are the ones defaulting on their mortgages.

So, what are we to do?  I am not sure there is a good solution.  In the short term, I think that there will be a bailout.  I think this is necessary to stabilize the market.  I also think that in the fallout from the bailout, we will see strict regulation on the level of SOX to outline how much risk these companies can take.  I also hope that this bailout will lead to tighter lending practices for these institutions.  In addition, it is quite obvious that many Americans cannot make sound credit decisions.  I do hope that the new wave of regulations will make it more difficult for many Americans to go deep into debt.  Furthermore, I hope that the new regulations provide some benefits to the fiscally responsible Americans that are not a part of this problem.  I would recommend tax credits equal to our share of $700B along with a 10 year freeze on any adjustable rate mortgages.

I think the long term is more important.  I believe that our country needs to operate in the green.  We need to balance the budget, make the FDIC solvent, and pay down our national debt.  This means that we will have to reduce military spending by ending unnecessary wars and start treating the country like a business.  We also need to be serious about maintaining jobs in the US.  Yes, the world is flat, but it should not be skewed.  Not everything can be made overseas to have a solvent economy.  That means we must create flexible legislation to make sure we are an equal partner in the global economy.

That is my take.  I have heard Eric’s.  What do you think?

I know a lot of my readers probably have DVR and are more than likely to skip past all the political ads.  So, you may have missed that there is a big election coming up.  This is just a reminder to register to vote.  The general election is on November 4th.  In Missouri, that means you have until October 8th to register to vote. That gives you only 15 days to register.

Registration in Missouri: Registration is easy in Missouri.  Just go to the voter registration site, select your county, print out the form, and send it in. You can also hand deliver it to your local election office if you are running close to the deadline.

Registration Elsewhere: If you are not in Missouri, goto RockTheVote.com and you can get information on how to register there.

You can learn about Barack and McCain at Political Base.

So, this weekend was the yearly mancation to Chicago to see the Cards play the Cubbies.  This year it had less significance for the Cardinals because they were, for all practical purposes, out of the race.  Nonetheless, we put on our drinking shoes and headed to the Windy city.

The Good: The weekend was a blast.  We spent a majority of time at the Houndstooth Saloon in Wrigleville.  It is a little country and western bar that has big HD tvs, country music, and a lot of Alabama fans.  Its classy touches included 40s at the bar and a bearded DJ playing Sweet Home Alabama.  I requested both Hillbilly Deluxe and Country Boys and Girls, but neither was played by the time we walked out.  Overall, great place… and, my new favorite Chicago bar.

On Saturday, we ate at Smoque BBQ in Chicago.  I had the brisket sandwich with a side of fries.  The sandwich was great.  The meat was tender and the BBQ sauce had a good flavor.  The fries were surprisingly the best fries I have had in a while.  They were well seasoned and plentiful.  My only suggestion for the establishment is to offer some variety in the sauces.  I am always a big fan of being able to sample sauces at BBQ joints.

We ended Saturday night at Pizzeria Due in Chicago.  It took a long time to cook the food, but it was delicious when it arrived.  Well worth the wait.  I still prefer St. Louis and New York style pizza.  But, the Chicago brand of pie gets points for uniqueness.

And, the bad: I had to throw this in here.  The only bad part of the weekend was eating at Su Casa in Chicago.  It was by far the worst restaurant I have ever been too.  The food was cold and expensive.  I was going to write a more in depth review, but Yelp seems to have it covered—horrible.

Well, that is about it.  Back to recovering.

37Signal’s blog Signal v. Noise use to be a daily read for me.  They always provided an interesting look at web design and usability.  I especially enjoyed their commentary in their “screens around town” posts.  But, lately I have been going less-and-less to the blog.  And, honestly it is because of posts like this one:  I liked Microsoft better when they were not A**holes.  The post curses.  It is poorly researched (as pointed out in the comments).  And, its tone is caustic, at best.  Lets not forget that at its very root, this blog is a company blog.  With that in mind, is this the type of tone you would want to convey if you owned a company?

I am disappointed.  This use to be one of my favorite blogs, and honestly, one of my favorite companies.  I even featured them in a presentation I gave for my IS5800 course as an example of how to do a company blog.  Now, I am not so sure.  I expect this type of writing from other blogs, but not 37 signals.