Anthony McG

I’ve mentioned Meebo before but I thought it warranted another specific mention as I use it everyday. Basically, meebo is a way to connect to any of the major instant messaging clients including Yahoo! Messenger, AIM, ICQ, Jabber, GTalk or MSN Messenger. I can’t install Messenger on my Windows workstation so I needed a way to connect in with the new hosting guys via IM.

Along came meebo to assist as it doesn’t require any installation and all you need is an account with any one of the major systems mentioned above. It’s one of the cleaniest web applications I’ve used plus they’ve just added the facility for group chats which shows genuine innovation in the area. You can also sign up to a meebo account so you can log into more than one service (ie. MSN and Yahoo!) at the same time, save preferences and also log conversations if you want. All in all, it’s a quality tool and I’d recommend using it.

After my last post bitching about Lost I thought I should even things out by giving a hearty “Tony’s Thumbs-Up Award of Total Excellence” to one of the best shows on at the moment, My Name Is Earl. Not too sure why I started watching it in the first place but it’s a quality comedy show. For the uninitiated it revolves around, Earl, a man who made his living by robbing and stealing.

When Earl wins the lottery and gets hit by a car he starts thinking that Karma is trying to tell him something, so Earl writes up a list. No ordinary list, a list of all the bad things he’s done to people. There ya have it, a simple premise for a show. No crazy hatches or “others”, just good old fashioned sharp screenwriting and perfect casting. Jason Lee is perfect in the central role of Earl and is accompanied by Ethan Suplee as his hapless brother. There’s also fantastic eye candy in the form of Jaime Pressly as Joy his crazy ex-wife, and Nadine Velazquez as Catalina. Some of the touches are just fantastic including the use of music from “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” in the last episode. Looking forward to the new season in the Autumn already.