score

During the summer I dedicated my blog to the infamous Baja 1000 race inspired by an episode of "Jesse James is a Dead Man" that aired around that time on Spike TV. The Baja off road races are sponsored by a race organization known as SCORE International, a promotion that sponsors several annual off road race competitions for trophy trucks, and one of their signature events begins today and lasts through the end of this weekend in Las Vegas. This event is called the Terrible's Primm 300.

The SCORE Terrible's Primm 300 is an off road … Read more

NoteID provides users with a simple tool for learning notes and keyboard positions for budding pianists. With a simple layout and nice testing software, there are only a few dull spots on this mostly excellent program.

The program's interface allows for quick learning, regardless of piano experience. A full keyboard layout and the well-planned controls guide users through the process. However, a Help file is available for added security. Users begin by playing a game that teaches specific notes on the screen's piano keyboard. Users are shown their scores after they click a button to ask for more … Read more

While flipping through the channels on my TV this week, I saw an advertisement for the show "Jesse James is a Dead Man" on Spike TV. This particular week's episode was about Jesse's preparation to race in the Baja 500, an off road race that is often considered the most dangerous race in modern times. So with this enticement, I've decided to feature my log this week to the notorious Baja races.

For the uninitiated , The Baja 500 is an off road race that takes place in Ensenada, Mexico and encompasses motorcycles, ATVs, and trophy … Read more

Like many people, I'm worried about identity fraud. Not paranoid, just generally curious what the chances are that I could be victimized by things like mail theft. Sure, I could sign up for one of the fee-based identity fraud monitoring services like LifeLock or Debix, or I can get a credit report that might give me some clue that a credit card has been taken out by someone else in my name.

Now there is a Web site that offers an assessment of a person's identity fraud risk for free.

The My ID Score site was recently launched … Read more

Updated 10:57 a.m. PDT with comment from MLB.com.

When is 2 million people too small a group to get a good feel for the latest trends?

When you're trying to perform the deceptively difficult calculation of just how many people visited a Web site.

ComScore, by some accounts the leading analysis firm that supplies publishers and advertisers with figures about how many people visit various Web sites, announced Tuesday a switch to a new method geared to provide more accurate Web traffic numbers. Previously the company had judged traffic on the behavior of a panel of … Read more

Facebook has become the top social network in a majority of European countries for the first time, according to analytics firm ComScore's newly released figures for February.

That's most dramatically reflected in Spain, where Facebook's reach has grown tenfold over the course of only a year and is now in the No. 1 spot

In fact, ComScore said Wednesday, the only countries where Facebook isn't the No. 1 or No. 2 social network are Germany, where it ranks fourth; Russia, where it's seventh; and Portugal, where it's third. Facebook's biggest stronghold in Europe … Read more

Baseball season is finally here, so it's time we take a look at some of the best baseball resources across the Web. Whether it's fantasy sports, news, or statistics, you'll find all the best right here.

BenchCoach: After you sign up for BenchCoach, it imports your fantasy baseball team and analyzes your roster. Once complete, it offers advice on how to improve the team. It even projects your success.

CBS Sports: CBS Sports' free Fantasy Baseball league provides real-time scoring and live chat. Its player news and stats features help you pick the right players for your team. It's highly-recommended if you want a full-featured, yet intuitive fantasy baseball league. Disclosure: CBS Sports and CNET are both owned by parent company CBS.

DraftHelp: DraftHelp gives you team depth charts to help you pick the right players in your fantasy draft. But its most useful feature is its "projected stats" tool, which tells you how well a player should perform for the year.

ESPN Fantasy Baseball: ESPN Fantasy Baseball Leagues are free. Users can create a public or private league. The tool's player news and stats come straight from ESPN.com. But beware: ESPN charges a fee for access to its in-depth news articles.

FantasyBaseballChamp: FantasyBaseballChamp provides users with real-time player rankings. Those rankings are based on how they're performing so far this year and how they should perform going forward. The site also has advice columns offering tips on who to add to your fantasy team. That said, don't consider it an ideal resource. It's a backup.

MLB.com: Major League Baseball's free fantasy baseball service is one of the simplest in this roundup. It boasts team management, stat tracking, and a league message board so team owners can communicate. That's about it.

ProFantasyBaseball: ProFantasyBaseball helps you pick the right players for your fantasy baseball team. Its "sleepers" section gives you information on players who might be off your radar but worth adding to your team. All the information is free.

RotoAuthority: RotoAuthority tells you who the top players are this year, based on current and projected performance. The site's blog is updated daily, providing guidance on who you should add to or drop from your team.

TG Fantasy Baseball: TG Fantasy Baseball offers basic player reports and depth charts. The site's Dollar Values tool tells you how many players at each position you should have on your roster. Its Projections tool gives you information on how well your players should perform during the season.

Yahoo Sports: Yahoo's fantasy baseball leagues are free, player information is always up-to-date, and the service's stat tracking is outstanding. But if you want a draft kit or scouting reports, you'll need to pay $9.99 and $14.99, respectively. Even though you'll have to pay for that information, Yahoo's fantasy baseball league is great. It's worth trying out.… Read more

McDonald's restaurants and global Internet usage share something in common: more than 1 billion served within a month.

Global Internet usage reached more than 1 billion unique visitors in December, with 41.3 percent in the Asia-Pacific region, according to a report released Friday by ComScore.

The study looked at Internet users over the age of 15 who accessed the Net from their home or work computers. Europe grabbed the next largest slice of the global Internet audience, with 28 percent, followed by the United States, with an 18.4 percent slice.

But Latin America, while comprising just 7.… Read more

The blogosphere's love affair with Facebook-MySpace traffic wars just won't stop.

On Thursday, TechCrunch posted new statistics from ComScore that show Facebook now pulling in nearly twice as many unique visitors worldwide as its News Corp.-owned competitor.

About 222 million people visited Facebook worldwide in December (keep in mind that the social network pegs its active user count somewhere just north of 150 million these days) versus 125 million people for MySpace.

This comes less than two weeks after other ComScore statistics indicated that not only was MySpace still bigger in the U.S., it was way … Read more