The joy of participating in a basketball game now is available at your desk. You needn’t be shy about checking out hundreds of basketball games on the Internet, many of them which are available for free.

Share your e-mail address and the doors are open to play online hoops on many websites. The bottom line here, some think, is that online basketball websites share e-mail info with advertisers in hopes of adding to the list of free games they have available to offer.

It’s left to you to decide if some e-mail harassment is an even tradeoff for potential hours of enjoyable time playing basketball online.

Harder versions of games always are available if the free games you receive no longer capture your attention.

Other games are more expensive, but contain:

• More realistic play
• More detail
• Better sound

Top of the line basketball games can be found on consoles such as Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3, or Xbox, plus in the CD-ROM computer game. It‘s surprising how real-to-life these consoles make a not real basketball game to be. Although details on all areas of the game are high, it‘s probably the graphics that‘s most impressive in these console games. They cost millions of dollars to produce and will cost you anywhere from $40-$60. One of the greatest things about these console games is you can challenge other players across the world to play against you through the network.

So, whether you’re the casual desk-bound basketball player or you need something more advanced with more life-like player motion in them, you can discover something that fits your own basketball playing needs and play basketball games online thanks to the Internet and broadband.

For more fun ideas about desk calendars visit www.ModernGreetings.com because perfect shots are meant for desk calendars.

For these established players, anything less than perfect credit record makes the deal a little too risky for them to lend the funds for used cars. The trouble with this approach is actually, that relying on a credit score is not the best way to tell if a particular loan aspirant is likely to default. Credit scores can be infamously unfair. People with a new credit history can have a reduced score even if they have a great job; people can get mistaken penalties under credit reports; they can even have poor credit score is only because they happened to shop around a lot for a loan.

The smaller nonpublic lenders though try to look past the credit history, into the real meaning of credit report. Still, auto loans for poor credit don’t really make much economic sense. You would probably do yourself an important favor if you could clean up your credit score so that you can rate about 680. And definitely, you need to be making at least $1500 every month. If you can’t swing any of this, you must probably not apply for an auto financing at all. Auto loans for poor credit holders can be a terrible deal for several reasons.

People who have trouble financing a car are usually people who have been repeatedly turned down and have terrible self-esteem walking in to every new dealership or financing office. When the dealer attempts all kinds of tricks on you, aiming to sell you a VIN etching, a prolonged warranty, they barely have the courage to object because use of grateful for the offer the loan in the first place.

One of the most significant scams that borrowers for auto loans for poor credit scores cope with is, the “subject to financing” scam. They are fully aware that you are so grateful to have a loan that they sell you on a proposition for a low sounding APR and also send it home in a new car. Two weeks afterwards, they call and tell you that the particular deal fell through, but they have a need proposition with an even lower APR. He had better know that that is impossible. The sole thing that makes it feasible is that they’ve extended the number of months you’ll be paying out your car off. You’ll be upside down on your car very soon. Just be sure you check out all the online loan calculators give you a rate on your credit score. Never sign anything until you do so.

Jax State wins OVC Tournament
Jackson, Tenn (WIAT)  The Jacksonville State Gamecocks are the Ohio Valley Conference baseball champs…and on their way to the NCAA field of 64. The Gamecocks beat Tech 10-8 behind Bert Smith’s three hits and three runs.  Sophomore Tanner Freshour (6-1) allowed just two hits in 3 1/3 innings of relief to earn the win, while Alex Jones tossed the final four innings and gave up just three hits to …
Read more on CBS 42 Birmingham

UGA-Tech hoops moved up a month
ATHENS — Mark Fox has won at least one big battle already this offseason.
Read more on Macon Telegraph

And if you are one of those basketball fanatics (or just a simple fan of the game), why do you not try to bring this game back with you at work? Sure you can have with you a mousepad that is made to look like a basketball. Or you can also have your computer’s desktop showing a favorite basketball moment. Or you can also choose to post posters or photos of your favorite basketball heroes. But that is not the only thing that you can do with your favorite game.

All you would need to quench that thirst for basketball is to bring it to work with the USB basketball. No. This is a basketball that you can plug in to your USB port and it inflates and you can play with it in the office. Nothing of that sort. The USB basketball is actually a USB gadget that is offered at Gadget Epoint and it allows you to shoot some hoops while working on your cubicle or desk.

If you go to arcades, you would most certainly think that the USB basketball is a miniature version of that basketball game you play there. And so just imagine all the fun you would have with this USB gadget which just needs to be plugged in to your computer. It even has a scoreboard that has an LED display which would make you feel like you are playing the real thing. And yeah, it also has a time limit so you would feel the pressure and that rush of adrenaline that comes with each real basketball game.

Valve’s Steam is a popular online store for games. Customers browse the catalog of popular PC games—which includes recent hits like Modern Warfare 2 to DOS classics like Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis—through a browser or the Steam desktop client. Games are playable once paid for with a credit card or PayPal, and after the desktop client has downloaded the content. No need to keep a game disc in your optical drive, no need to jump through copy-protection hoops.

Throughout it’s entire existence, Steam has been Windows-exclusive. Linux enthusiasts have gotten some of the games to work on their favorite build, and of course Mac users get BootCamp to run Windows on their computers. But Valve’s lucrative gaming ecosystem has been officially a Windows PC project.

Bringing Steam to Mac OS X involves certain obstacles, from a development point of view. Most of the games available on the catalog don’t have a Mac version, especially older games that originally ran on DOS. But since Apple’s PCs use the same hardware as Windows PCs, I don’t think Valve will have too much trouble, especially if Apple has started taking Valve seriously. A good number of games already have Mac counterparts/work on a Mac anyway.

So is Steam Coming to the Mac? Right now, your guess is as good as mine. But I’ve never known Valve to blatantly mislead its customers, so I’m leaning on “yes”. Only time will tell though, so stay tuned for updates.

Post from: The Gadget Blog

Originally posted at The Cheapskate

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Simplenote: An app that’s similar to, but obviously better than, the built-in notes app, if only for its online syncing abilities. The app is now free, though you can still download a paid, ad-free version for $5.

Facebook: Facebook! You probably already have this. But if you don’t, get it now, because it has fully customizable push notifications. If you have the app, just check for updates. If not, it’s still free.

LEGO Photo: Takes photos, and converts them into pixel art, in which the pixels are actually little LEGOs. Sort of. There’s a nice ripple effect when rendering photos, though the results, unless your subject is well-defined, can be kind of muddy. Free.

CoPilot Live Directions: CoPilot is an all-around decent turn-by-turn app, and it’s one of the cheapest available. This version, though, lets you use the app for free for 30 days, after which voice directions, traffic, and a few other features are stripped. But you still get to keep turn-by-turn directions for free, which is pretty amazing.

Momento: A very pretty journaling app. Unless you’ve felt the specific urge to keep a journal or scrapbook on your iPhone before, it’s hard to recommend this. But if that’s something you’re into—apparently this is a thing, now—then there isn’t a nicer way to indulge your habit. $3.

iVideocamera: When this video camera app came out, it was a joke—it recorded postage-stamp-sized video at a stuttering framerate, without sound. Now, it records at a decent resolution—320×486—at a full 10fps. This conforms to commonly held definitions of “video,” almost! There’s still no sound, but this is the best you can do without jailbreaking. A dollar.

Turner Classic Movies: TCM’s got an extensive database of vintage film trivia, previews, posters and other info—it’s an invaluable source for people who like films that are older than they are. The app is a faithful adaptation of most of the web content, including a lot of video. As a non-buff I found a fair amount to be entertained by here, though I wish it was a little less than three dollars.

Pastefire: Remember Pastebot? It was great. Pastefire is like that, sliced in half: Any content you paste to your online Pastefire account, or into a bookmarklet, shows up on your iPhone in Pastefire. One you’ve got it set up, it’s quite a bit faster than sending an email, and the app gives you a lot of options as to how to deal with the pasted content once you’ve got it. Free.

Typograffit: Instant ransom letters! It’s pure gimmickry, but pretty well executed. $2.

Dark Nebula: is great. It’s basically a marble labyrinth game with guns, and explosions. My opinion here doesn’t really matter, though, because over the weekend, this app—normally a dollar—is free. The discount is live now, so GO GO GO.

NBA Hotshot: I laughed at how simple the original Skee-ball game was, but I kept coming back to it. NBA Hotshot used the same physics engine and general concept, so if you’ve already got one, you probably don’t need the other. But if you don’t, this simple throw-the-ball-in-the-hoop casual game is a brilliant timesuck, which you can play for a short or as long as you want.

MobileMe Galleries: Apple doesn’t release official iPhone apps that much, and adding a MobileMe gallery after all these months seems a little tardy. Thankfully, it’s pretty good—better than Flickr’s app, for example, and a nice value-add for MobileMe subscribers.

Yelp: So, uh, as I was writing this roundup, I got an email from Yelp. It was long, and it was announcing a new version of the app. Here’s the part that matters:

Yelp Check-ins: We’ve now added the ability for yelpers to “Check-in” to businesses. This includes being able to broadcast your whereabouts and send Quick Tips to your friends on Yelp, Facebook and Twitter who, if they opt-in to these updates, will be able to see your location both via “Push” alerts, as well as on a map. Active users of this feature may receive “Regular” status of highly-frequented businesses. This means they are part of an active group of people who patronize a business and this moniker will appear next to reviews and tips and on business pages in the app, as well as on the business listing on Yelp.com.

In other words, Yelp probably just murdered FourSquare in its sleep. Yikes. There are some other nice updates to the app’s augmented reality feature, account support and sharing faculties. Still free.

This list is in no way definitive. If you’ve spotted a great app that hit the store this week, give us a heads up or, better yet, your firsthand impressions in the comments. And for even more apps: see our previous weekly roundups here, and check out our Favorite iPhone Apps Directory. Have a great weekend, everybody!

I’ve personally taken Amtrak’s high-speed Acela line between Boston and New York more times than I can remember. At 3.5 hours, it’s roughly the same amount of time you’d spend jumping through hoops at the airport but it’s a far less abrasive experience overall. The inclusion of free Wi-Fi ought to add yet another compelling reason to choose trains over planes.

The company had previously hinted at adding high-speed wireless connections to its trains and has now officially said that the Acela line (which runs between Boston and Washington D.C. with stops in Connecticut, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore) will be getting Wi-Fi in March – for free, initially, although the regular price hasn’t been announced yet.

After that, the slower regional Amtrak lines around the Northeast should be getting Wi-Fi connections, with an eventual rollout to trains all over the country.

Note to Amtrak: Make the service free forever. Don’t charge for it. I know your industry’s in a tight spot right now but the last round-trip ticket I bought between Boston and New York on the Acela line was $233. That’s insane when flights can be found for less than half that.

[USA Today via Engadget]

By Chris Scott Barr

I don’t have kids, but I do know that there is plenty on TV that I wouldn’t want a small child to see. Most parents seem to have good enough sense not to give their kids control of the remote, which lets them make sure they’re only watching suitable programming. Now if you’re the type that wants to give your child a little freedom to watch what they want at an early age, you have to jump through hoops to make sure that they don’t stumble onto bad channels. Or you could just get the iMote.

I have no idea why they felt the need to use the ‘i’ in the name, but that’s beside the point. The remote has only a handful of buttons, which is all a child needs. You’ve got your power and volume control, along with five channel buttons. You’ll program the five channels to the ones your child watches most, thus assuring they will never see anything inappropriate. If you like to leave your kid alone with the TV for extended periods, it might be worth $30.

[ ThinkGeek ] VIA [ CoolestGadets ]

Finally. We’re done. All you have to do is comment on this post and, presumably, all the other posts in this series, and then you’ll be eligible to win a SMART Board for your home, office, or school.

Sorry for making you guys jump through so many hoops but I thought this would be a good idea to make it a little harder to win a nice, classy prize like this.

Here’s some info:

Experience interactivity like never before with the SMART Board 685ix interactive whiteboard system. As the world’s first ultra-short throw interactive whiteboard system, the 685ix combines an ultra-short-throw projector with a widescreen interactive whiteboard. The 685ix offers you unparalleled image quality, a precise touch experience and a large interactive surface for teaching and learning.

The system’s ultra-short-throw projector, the UX60, virtually eliminates shadows, glare and distracting projector light. It is positioned directly above the interactive whiteboard, projecting crisp, bright images from only 12″ (30.5 cm) away. And because the 685ix’s interactive whiteboard is widescreen, it has 20% more working space than a standard board.

Good luck. I’ll pick a winner this weekend.