If you are into all things Google then you might be looking at Google Wave. The beta offering from the big G has been rolling out to select users and word around the web is that it’s the future of e-mail.

What the program promises is real time communication. You can invite friends, family, and coworkers into a wave and all of you can work in a collaborative fashion.

I know my description is a little vague. I recently got my invitation and I keep opening Google Wave and looking at it. As it stands right now I sent out a dozen invitations to friends and none of them have yet been accepted into the fold by Google.

I basically have a Lamborghini sitting in the garage without an engine and to make it even more painful I have no idea how to drive it.

I love the basic ideas put out in the promotional videos but the reality so far is that Google Wave is an empty suit. To be fair Wave is a beta, and all of the cool extensions that will probably make this project the future have yet to be released. I also have nobody to interact with so it’s a one man basketball game.

My initial concern is that it will be like Twitter. People will download it, look it over and never really understand what the potential is. It’s not exactly intuitive and the few extensions they have available were confusing for me. I’m not the ultimate techy but I am definitely more tech savvy than the average user. Hopefully my initial review will change once I get some people to interact with, this program is something I have been wanting for a long time and I want it to be a huge success.

Alright people. Here is the deal of the year. If you have any vacation time stacked up pack your bags and get ready to fly.

Southwest Airlines is offering some insane rates $25, $50, $75, and $100 for trips to select cities. They are based on miles so the $100 rate is for trips 1000+.

 I won’t bore you with details, I’ll just give you the link to the Southwest site and let you book a nice December getaway.

There are so many fears about N1H1 and the virus so we talked to Ken Pearce the Lorain County General Health District commissioner. If you wonder about any of these topics check out the interview.

1. When will the flu season get started?
2. Has the H1N1 vaccine really been checked out?
3. Will the vaccine give you the flu?
4. Why is H1N1 being given in addition to the normal flu vaccine?
5. Who is most likely to get sick from the H1N1 variation?
6. If the flu has already come to the area once, why are people so worried about it now?
7. Who really needs to get the vaccine?
8. Where can you get reliable information about the flu and H1N1 virus and vaccination locations?

Watch the video

iPhone and other 3G powered phone owners here’s some news to get excited about. AT&T has put up a new tower in the southeast part of Elyria. The Chestnut Commons area is the home for the latest 3G tower.

The iPhone is without a doubt the coolest tool/toy I have ever owned. That being said, I hate the network its on. Hopefully the new tower will provide relief from dropped calls and zero signal areas. Hats off to AT&T, keep this up and you may still have me as a customer when Verizon finally gets the rights to sell the iPhone.

Here is the full press release from AT&T

AT&T CUSTOMERS GET MORE MOBILE BROADBAND

COVERAGE IN ELYRIA

New Cell Site Activated as Part of Ongoing AT&T Investment in Local Network

CLEVELAND, Oct. 6, 2009 — As part of its continuing network investment to support growing demand for advanced mobile devices and applications, AT&T* today announced the activation of a new 3G cell site in Elyria that will enhance coverage for area residents and businesses near the Chestnut Commons shopping center.

The new cell site is one part of AT&T’s ongoing efforts to drive innovation and extend its 3G wireless network – the fastest in the nation, according to independent testing. It is also part of AT&T’s ongoing investment to build the broadband networks that will fuel economic growth and create jobs, and enable its customers to quickly access the content, applications and services that matter most to them.

“We appreciate AT&T’s investments to enhance its wireless coverage in our community,” said Sen. Sue Morano. “Enhanced wireless connectivity provides us with better access to essential services and it also helps improve our quality of life.”

From 2006-2008, AT&T’s total capital investment in its wireless and wireline networks in Ohio was more than $1.8 billion.

 ”AT&T’s investment in 3G technology to enhance the wireless network is a positive development for the Elyria area,” said Rep. Matt Lundy. “A vast number of residents as well as businesses will be able to profit from fast mobile broadband and reliable cell service for communication and commerce.  

The AT&T 3G network opens the door to a new era of advanced mobile services, devices and feature-rich content.  With 3G speeds, you can surf the Web, download files faster than ever, and enjoy the very latest interactive mobile applications.

“Our goal is pretty simple: we want you to have an extraordinary experience when you make a call, check e-mail, download a song or video, or surf the Internet on your AT&T device,” said Tom Pelto, president of AT&T Ohio. “As part of the Elyria community, we’re always looking for new opportunities to provide enhanced coverage and our investment in the local network is just one way to accomplish this.”

AT&T’s 3G mobile broadband network is based on the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) family of technologies that includes GSM and UMTS, the most open and widely used wireless network platforms in the world. AT&T offers 3G data roaming in more than 100 countries, as well as voice calling in more than 215 countries.

AT&T offers unsurpassed choice in the range of devices, services and applications compatible with its 3G network. AT&T offers a wide variety of devices from more than a dozen manufacturers, including handsets that are compatible with six different operating systems and five different e-mail applications. Our Media Mall 2.0 offers more than 90,000 content options, and customers can download virtually any application over the Internet. Additionally, AT&T supports a community of more than 20,000 application developers via its devCentral portal.

For updates on the AT&T wireless network, please visit www.att.com/networknews.

This is what 13,000 McDonalds looks like on a map of the United States— Pretty impressive. Weathersealed.com writer Steven Von Worley came up with this brilliant demonstration of commercial sprawl after running into a strip mall in the middle of nowhere.

 So how did they pull off this map?

 “I set out to determine the farthest point from a Micky Dee’s – in the lower 48 states, at least.  This endeavor required information, and the nice folks at AggData were kind enough to provide it to me: a complete list of all 13,000-or-so U.S. restaurants, in CSV format, geolocated for maximum convenience.  From there, a bit of software engineering gymnastics, and…

Behold, a visualization of the contiguous United States, colored by distance to the nearest domestic McDonald’s!”

Creating this look at the all encompassing spread makes me wonder how a few other companies would fare. Wal-Mart comes to mind and Subway is closing in on McDonalds so their map would look pretty similar, and despite closing some stores there are places that have Starbucks on opposite street corners.

Thanks to Phil Leon, he’s one of our readers with the best e-mail forwards I have ever seen.

If you make purchases online, I’m going to give you a tip that I promise will save you a ton of money. How many times have you been buying or subscribing to something online and seen that little box that says “Promotional Code”?

I never have that code and I’m guessing most people don’t either.

We just signed up for smugmug.com, and the pro membership is $149.95 a year. Our Web Guru — yes, we call him that ... he is just that good — Boone Simpson told me about a site, Retailmenot.com. They list hundreds of online coupon and promotional codes. I went to the site, punched in the name of the company I was looking for and got half off the price. $75 bucks is a big deal. Imagine the possibility with holiday shopping this year, magazine subscriptions — the list goes on.

Here are some samples of the most used codes at promotionalcodes.com and Retailmenot.com

$10 off any $100 order at Home Depot

15% off an order at Dicks Sporting Goods

$200 off qualifying vacations from Orbitz.com

$5 off a $50 order at Target

20% off an online order from Pizza Hut

Hi all. Sorry about the extended absence from blogging. Summer is our crazy season and we are always short on staff with vacations.

I was looking through my junk mail folder today and I came across one of the worst examples of Phishing Spam that I have seen in a long time.

With so much spam originating outside of the United States it’s well known that a tip off is the misuse of words. They are proper English words but they aren’t really used the proper way.

Take a look at this goodie that probably made it’s way to me via Nigeria. I commend them for their use of scare tactics and creatively named government agencies to elicit a reaction but they really need to kidnap a new proof reader.

Be enlighten that United States Department of the Treasury Washington DC in active virtual with Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI have escalate our watch on your computer and telephone communication because we discovered you have been communicating with imposters imposing as bank officials.

We have monitored transaction list of the Western Union and the Wal-Mart Money Gram for transaction made on your name and transaction made through your bank account and our general findings urged us to set up multifaceted maximum security on your everyday activities most specially your email correspondence and telephone communications our eyes is all over you.

Base on how fascinating your case turned out to be we deployed agents of Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI and ambassador of International Debt Funds Recoup Unit of United States Department of the Treasury Washington DC to investigate if there were any inheritance funds as a result of contract payment owe to you by the bank which name is not disclosed on this correspondence and to our great dismay it was discovered from the records of the Foreign Operation Department that your name appeared as a beneficiary of contract payment funds valued US$12.8Million United States Dollars.

The assembly of American Government agency sent on your behalf to the bank confirmed that the procedure and blueprint of your funds recoup was fair and just considered opinion by the Bank and the outcome of the event was a solution to curtail activities of con artist and it was a perfect solution to your quest on your inheritance funds.

Finally the recouped inheritance funds arrived US Treasury Washington DC today allotted into Cash Consignment Baggage and is currently deposited in US Treasury Basement Washington DC.

To claim your funds reconfirm your personal information stated as following below that will be used for the delivery of the Cash Consignment Baggage to your location.

**Full Names: - . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..

**Residence Address:-. . . . . . . . . . . . .

**Working Address:-. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

**Occupation: - . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

**Company Name: - . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

**Position of Office:-. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

**Home Phone #:-. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

**Office Phone #:-. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

**Mobil #:-. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

**Fax #:-. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

**Current Age:-. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

**Marital Status:-. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Any of this I.D is acceptable scanned copy of your International Passport / Drivers License Copy:

This is compulsory instruction.

God Bless America.

Mr. Michael Cena.

If you have been thinking about a new camera Canon has just announced a new mid-range camera. The Canon 7D should be available by the end of September and will hit the streets with an msrp of $1699. That’s a great price for something that packs an 18mp sensor, full HD video recording, an updated chip set and an updated body construction.

I have used most of the Canon’s from the Mark II all the way to the 20D and I have been happy with everything but the 5D. For some reason that camera just never matched up with the output of the other Canon’s. I don’t know, I’m still trying to decide if I just happen to have a dog. Nearly everybody shares their love for that camera.

Right now I’m doing daily photojournalism with the 50D and the camera is outstanding. I do have to be very careful with it because the weather resistance is almost zero. I had a couple of sprinkles hit the camera and it caused problems for two days before things were back to normal.

The 7D boasts increased weather resistance that is reported to be even better than what the $2600 5D Mark II has to offer.

Check out the press release from Canon.

Here’s something you don’t see every day. This home built motorcycle can be found cruising around Lorain County and there’s something really different about this three wheeled bike.

The front end is all Motorcycle, Honda to be precise and a soon to be completed modification calls for the removal of the Honda and turning the bike into a modified Harley Davidson.

The other half of the bike is the rear end. The back of this bike is the power source. Under the custom built engine cover is a 6 cylinder Chevy Beretta engine. It has a towing package to make this already extremely long bike even more so.

In the end, according to the State of Ohio the bike is a motorcycle and not a car.

There is a new email hoax floating around the net that claims to show two photos from the crash of the Air France Airbus that went down a month ago over the Atlantic Ocean during a flight from Rio to Paris. The claim in the email is that while everybody onboard was killed the memory stick was recovered from the camera and these two images survived.

Well, a quick trip to snopes.com provides all the information you need to know this story is bull.

First off, the email has already made a trek around the world once before. According to snopes a blogger wanted to demonstrate that people don’t really read things. He posted a story that was pretty much identical to this one. It was based on a 2006 accident between an executive jet and a 737. He ran the photos and at the bottom of the story he posted a link that explained the hoax.

Saving the best for last, the pictures might look familiar to some people. If you are a Lost fan you may have seen this crash in the opening episode. The photos are screen caps from promotional footage for the show