Archive for the ‘Computers’ Category

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2007 AAU International Tournament flyer

Tuesday, October 24th, 2006

ORLANDO, FL – Click here for Official AAU International Tournament flyer, in English and Spanish. (Requires Adobe or other PDF reader to download and open)

Click here for a free, faster alternative to Adobe to read PDF files

From Lifehacker Tech blog:
You don’t need Adobe Reader to load up for 5 minutes, freezing your computer 4 times in the process, just to view a PDF. In fact, Foxit loads up practically instantly, and has never frozen my computer for any amount of time. Unless you’re doing some serious creating/editing of PDFs, Foxit is likely the only PDF reader you’ll ever need, so go download it – you’ll be so glad you did.

From Al’s Fastball
TidBits AAU Teams signing up

TEAMS (rumored to have) SIGNED UP SO FAR INCLUDE:

Puerto Rico Natl. Team
and their 18 yrs old team
Los Socios (Venezuela )
Earls Club ( WI )
Bucktown Bee’s ( Ontario )
Ohsweken Redmen
Selects ( Ontario ) –
Radio 560 ( Mexico )
Alabama Fastpitch (AL )
Ambassadors (St. John, V.I. )
New Breed ( Nassau,Bahamas )
Cutro ( N.Y. )
Florida Fastpitch
Utah Hogs/Omaha Fastpitch ( NE)
Texaco Pirates (Bahamas )

Posted in Computers, ISC, ISC-II, Tournaments | No Comments »

Firefox Browser 2.0 Released

Monday, October 23rd, 2006

While we usually post our computer related notes in the “Tech for Players and Fans” section of the Fastpitchwest, we thought the release of a major upgrade of the Firefox browser warranted special mention. To download the latest version, click the icon below. For those who want to know more about Firefox, click here.

Posted in Computers | No Comments »

“Add to Google” – the Morning Brief that is

Wednesday, October 11th, 2006

Add to Google
(click logo to add RSS feed to your Google Homepage or Reader)

Regular readers of Fastpitchwest know that we are fans of “Google”, for the many technological concepts that they have put into play, many of which come in handy for the fastball world. (Maps and Gmail to name a couple).

While “RSS” (Real Simple Syndication) has remained anything but simple to many, Google how provides a one-click way to get blog posts sent to your RSS Reader. Try it out if you like, by clicking the “Add Google” button.

If you already have a gmail account, use your same log in. If you don’t, well, what are you waiting for? I have a number of “Gmail invites” free for the asking. Just email me, gmail (at) fastpitchwest.com

Posted in Computers, General | No Comments »

ISF Men’s & Jr. Men’s Tournaments Awarded to Canada

Thursday, August 31st, 2006

Jr. Men to Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada in 2008, Men to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Canada in 2009.


The ISF announced the site for the Jr. Men’s ISF Tournament in 2008: Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. Where is Whitehorse, you say? About 3000 miles from Los Angeles, CA. About 5500 kilometers miles from Toronto, Canada. Interesting bit of trivia: During the month of June, Whitehorse has 20 hours of daylight. Guess there won’t be (m)any night games ! 🙂

From the International Softball Federation – ISF

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 31, 2006

FUTURE EVENTS AWARDED, TASK FORCE CREATED
ISF World Championship in Europe Next Year

BEIJING, CHINA – The next two International Softball Federation (ISF) world championships have been awarded, ISF President Don Porter announced today. In 2008 the VIII Jr. Men’s World Championship (19-and-under) will be held in Whitehorse, Yukon (Canada).

The XII Men’s World Championship is scheduled for 2009 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (Canada).

The 2008 Jr. Men’s World Championship will be held from June 21st to 29th

Posted in Computers, Tournaments | No Comments »

Major Upgrade of Firefox (1.5) Released Today

Wednesday, November 30th, 2005

We generally include our “tech” notes and recommendations in the “tech” section of the Fastpitchwest Forum. From time to time, though, we run across a significant development in the world of tech that we think warrants inclusion in the Morning Brief. Today’s release of a major upgrade of the Firefox webbrowser, version 1.5 is cause for special attention.

For those of you already using Firefox, I think you will love the upgrade from version 1.07 to version 1.50. Rather than telling you what’s new, I’ll leave that to the folks that designed it tell you. Click the logo above.

For those of you asking “What is Firefox”, we’ll say simply that it’s an alternative — and big improvement — over Internet Explorer. (more…)

Posted in Computers, General | No Comments »

Stake Your Flag at Fastpitchwest’s Readers Map

Friday, October 28th, 2005

Frappr is a new online mapping service which allows readers of Fastpitchwest.com to post a flag showing where they are, add a note (and photo if they wish). Just enter your name and zip and Google Maps does the rest !

Take a look, or better still, add yourself to our map. (Once at the map, click a flag and the reader’s name, note and photo pop-up) Have a team website? Add the URL to the note (e.g. http://www.fastpitchwest.com)

Check out our Frappr!
Click here to view and/or add yourself to our map !

We strongly encourage you to post a photo; as you will see, it’s more fun to peruse the flags when photos are attached ! Feel free to use a photo of yourself posted at Fastpitchwest. The Frappr system will automatically resize the photo for you. Note that you can “zoom in” on any flag by using the grid on the left hand side of the page. (Zooming in will show you the city and surrounding area for the zip code entered)

Update: Thanks to those of you who have take the time to “plant your flag” on the map, and especially those posting photos (most have). If you decide you’d like to add or change your photo, or run into any problems, please email me (jim (at) fastpitchwest.com and I’ll delete you and you can do it again.

Update 2: You may include a website address in your “comments”, but need to include the full http://www.yourwebsite.com URL to create a hyperlink.

Update 3: If you have a high resolution (large) photo, Frappr will shrink your thumbnail, but post the photo in full size (which may be too large for online viewing). We recommend nothing larger than 800 x 600 (640 x 480 works fine, or even smaller if you wish). If you don’t know how to reduce that giant photo, email it to me and I will do it for you: jim @ fastpitchwest.com

Update 4: Great job out there. The map is growing by the day. Note that you can click “photos” link at the top of the map page, and view the photos, 9 to a page. You can click the photo to enlarge them as well. Right now, about 2/3’s of the members have a photo or logo for their flag.

Posted in Computers, Fastpitchwest, Photos, Players, Websites | No Comments »

Google’s New RSS Blog Reader

Friday, October 7th, 2005

Well, it’s the off-season, and it’s a slow news cycle, so a good time to drop in a tech tip. To many, RSS (Real Simple Syndication) blog feeds are still Greek.

Leave it to the geniuses at Google to simplify RSS for you. They just rolled out their RSS “Reader” today. Click here for details and a tour.

We’ll leave the explanations to Google, but the short version is that Google Reader gives you a way to see what updates have been posted to your favorite blogs — like Morning Brief or The Deuce, for example. Toss in your favorite baseball site and keep up with the playoffs while you’re at it. Instead of clicking around to see which of your favorite blogs or websites have been updated, just visit your Google Reader, and it will display the excerpts to show you.

p.s. When you get to the blank line to “Add a Feed”, copy and paste these (one at a time):

http://fastpitchwest.com/morningbrief/wp-rss2.php
http://fastpitchwest.com/thedeuce/wp-rss2.php

Be sure to click “Subscribe” button.

Posted in Computers | No Comments »

Morning Brief Headlines in Your Gmail

Wednesday, July 13th, 2005

Anyone using Gmail? You can get Morning Brief headlines at the top of your inbox. Very simple to set up, here’s how:

In Gmail, click:
-Settings
-Web Clips
-Add
-Custom,
then copy and paste the following in:
http://fastpitchwest.com/morningbrief/wp-rss.php

then save.

If there are any other web clips listed, you can delete them. Gmail will rotate the latest headlines for Morning Brief. You can click to read any you wish.

If you haven’t tried Gmail, it’s worth a look. Very slick interface, easy to use and stores 2 gigs, so you’ll never fill it up. You need an “invite” to get a Gmail account, but they are easy to come by. Email me if you can’t find/get one.

And if you want to also mix in headlines from our ISC-II blog, “The Deuce”, same routine:’

In Gmail, click:
-Settings
-Web Clips
-Add More Clips (at bottom)
-Custom,
then copy and paste the following in:
http://fastpitchwest.com/thedeuce/wp-rss2.php

Posted in Computers, General | No Comments »

What is RSS?

Tuesday, April 12th, 2005

Our “Morning Brief” blog has an explanation of RSS. Click that RSS link over there on the right, or here.

RSS stands for “Rich Site Summary”, or “Real Simple Syndication”. In short, it operates to send you emails when a site like “Morning Brief” is updated. It saves you having to log into the site over and over and trying to figure out if there is anything new. It’s like being on the private mailing list that tells you everytime something new has been posted.

There are a variety of software programs that serve as RSS readers, but for my two cents worth, the easiest is the one that Fastpitchwest recommends for email, Mozilla Thunderbird. Thunderbird is a great email program and also serves as a RSS reader. Get it free at:
http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/

For those of you married to Outlook, here is an add-on program called “RSS Popper” that will allow you to get RSS feeds via email in Outlook.

You can get RSS of your other favorite websites, like ESPN, Sports Illustrated, and most of the major websites on the net. Once you use RSS, you’ll wonder how you ever got along without it.

Posted in Computers | No Comments »

Google’s Latest: “Keyhole” Software”, Joystick Control of the Planet

Saturday, April 9th, 2005

No games this weekend? Tired of smacking that poor penguin around? Well, if you liked the “satellite photo” feature of Google Maps, you’re gonna love this one. Google has aquired “Keyhole” software, which provides a video/animated version of the satellite maps. It’s like having a joystick control of the planet:

http://www.keyhole.com/

(Be sure to try out the various controls, including “tilt”, which makes it seem like you’re flying a plane.)

Baseball stadiums are easy to spot. (click the box at left if you can’t see them right away) Fastball fields too, if you know where to find them. Kimberly Wisconsin’s legendary Sunset Park, Portland’s Delta Park (Rose Cup) were a couple that I was able to zoom in on. Even if you decide not to pay the $30 a year to keep the service, the 7 day free trial is worth the time it takes to sign up and download it. A great time waster at work. Your boss says get it out of your system this weekend, ’cause there’s real work to be done next week!

Post an address or coordinates in the “comments” section if want to share a fastball field or something interesting with the rest of our readers.

Posted in Computers, General, Websites | No Comments »

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