2007 Cy Young Award winner Jake Peavy has finally waived his no-trade clause and agreed to come to the Chicago White Sox. In exchange the San Diego Padres will get four young pitching prospects: Clayton Richard, Aaron Poreda, Dexter Carter, and Adam Russell.

Landing Peavy, whom the Sox had pursued earlier in the season only to get turned down by him, will set the team up for a run at the AL Central title. The Sox currently trail Detroit by 2.5 games.

Peavy won’t be able to pitch right away, however. He’s been on the DL for a while with an ankle injury, and it’s not certain when he’ll make his first start in a Sox uniform.

This ought to be good for the South Siders!

So Jerry bought a new iPhone last week and we’re still trying to get acquainted with all its different functions. One thing I come across a lot is the debate about whether or not you should “jailbreak” the device. This just means to perform some sort of iPhone hack that… actually, I can’t figure out what jailbreaking does. I think it allows you to use a lot of unofficial free apps on the device.

On the downside, however, jailbreaking voids the iPhone’s warranty, which means that on the off chance something goes wrong, I’d be stuck paying for repairs.

So what do you iPhone owners recommend? Should I jailbreak the thing or just leave it alone??

My old alarm clock gave out a couple months ago, so I’ve been using the alarm on my cell phone to wake me up in the mornings. This hasn’t been working out too well, however, because I got to bed very early (often before 10pm) in order to wake up early (around 5am or 5:30am). The problem is that I often get text messages or even phone calls after 10pm, which obviously disturbs my sleep and can throw off my entire schedule. Yes, I’ve asked people not to text or call after 10, but I guess they just don’t listen.

Anyway, I want to get an alarm clock so I don’t have to deal with these late-night calls anymore. I was checking out the sale pages at Buy.com this morning, and found something that I would LOVE to have. It’s a dual alarm clock audio system that can accommodate an iPod and would be perfect for my purposes.

It’s called the iHome Desktop Dual Alarm Clock, and has a bunch of awesome features. For instance, you can set it to Gradual Wake so you’re not jarred out of your sleep in the morning. I cannot stand harsh-sounding alarm clocks, so I would definitely take advantage of this feature.

Moreover, this alarm clock serves as a docking station and speaker system for iPods, and can accommodate a whole bunch of different ones, including the 3G Nano that I currently have. I know I would get a lot of use out of this radio during the daytime as well, because I don’t have any other kind of speaker system for my iPod. I’d probably bring the radio into the kitchen so I could listen to audiobooks while cooking and cleaning.

This iHome Desktop Dual Alarm Clock only costs $69.99 at Buy.com, which is $30 less than the suggested retail price. That’s not a bad deal for a radio that can do so much. I want to order this ASAP!!

The latest Princeton Review list of the Top Party Schools in the nation has just been released. For some reason, it fills undergrads with a sense of pride if their school makes the list, though I personally don’t really look at it that way. I guess I’m getting old here, but the thought of a school being known for its sloppy drunks is not exactly an attractive quality. Surely 15 years ago, I thought differently, right???

Anyway, here are the Top 10:

1. Penn State
2. University of Florida
3. University of Mississippi
4. University of Georgia
5. Ohio University
6. West Virginia University
7. University of Texas
8. University of Wisconsin
9. Florida State University
10. University of California-Santa Barbara

Michael Vick has been conditionally reinstated to the NFL by commissioner Roger Goodell. The decision is effective immediately, and Vick can begin participating in training camp and preseason games as soon as he lands with a team. There could be some further disciplinary action, such as suspension, so analysts are saying he probably won’t play in the regular season until October.

I’m kind of torn on this issue. On the one hand, I think what Vick did — financing and participating in a dog fighting ring — was despicable. On the other hand, he served his time and therefore should be allowed to attempt a comeback. So I guess I’m ok with him being reinstated by the NFL.

BUT, what I would really love to see is a statement by all the owners in the league. It would be great if NO ONE signed him, kind of like Barry Bonds after he left the Giants. I’m just happy that the Bears have Jay Cutler, so there’s no chance he’ll sign here. I wonder how the fans of whatever team Vick joins will react to him. With lots of boos, I hope.

(Photo: Steve Helber / Associated Press)

I don’t really spend a lot of time looking through Google Labs to see what new products and features they’re coming up with next, but a friend alerted me to something I think is pretty cool. It’s an Undo Send feature in Gmail, that allows you to take back an email message that you fired off too hastily. I believe the window is very short — just 5 seconds or so — but that’s still better than nothing.

This feature has been around since March, and you have to activate it in your account by going to Gmail Labs –> Settings. This is great for those times when you forget to include an attachment, forget a piece of information, or simply change your mind about sending that angry breakup email to your significant other.

I activated Undo Send a couple weeks ago, but haven’t had to use it yet!

One thing I’ve been meaning to do for a long time now is start putting together scrapbooks to commemorate the various stages of my son’s life. I’m pretty good at taking lots of pictures of both everyday happenings and important events, but now I want a good way to present these pictures (other than simply printing them out and putting them in a boring album). That’s why I think this Digital Scrapbook Artist software from Serif sounds like a very interesting product.

Digital Scrapbook Artist is an easy-to-use computer program that helps you add embellishments, borders, graphics, and other touches to your photos to create stunning digital scrapbooks right at home. The software features all the tools you need to get the job done in just three simple steps. All you have to do is select a theme (for example, birthday or anniversary), personalize your photos (add and place the embellishments you want), and then share your finished scrapbook with friends and family.

This Serif Digital Scrapbook Artist is suitable for both beginners (that’s me) and experts alike, and sure would provide a nice change from pointing family members to my Flickr page for the latest photos of my son! The software is on sale at Buy.com for $23.99, down from the regular price of $49.99. There’s a tutorial video on the Buy.com product page that shows just how easy it is to use the Digital Scrapbook, and I have to say it all looks so fun! I would love to get this to help preserve my son’s childhood memories!