I’ve been satisfied with Netflix since switching from Blockbuster Online for ‘mail delivered’ DVD and BluRay DVD movies. My wife and I generally watch one movie each week and have been comfortable with the service and choices available with the ‘one at a time’ subscription. Since we have a BluRay player, I opted for the $1.00 premium on top of our $8.99/month Netflix subscription ($9.99/month) which saved us $2 each month over their competitor, but noticed that Netflix as of April 27 will double that premium — $2.00/month for the BluRay option ($10.99/month). The amount is now only a dollar less then Blockbuster and doesn’t offer the 2 in-store exchanges which was a nice perk (although we did switch to Netflix for the TivoHD streaming option only currently available at Netflix).
Since we have been generally watching movies in our bedroom, I’m debating whether paying an extra $2 for BluRay is really worthwhile. DVD movies and even the Netflix-to-TivoHD streamed movies all seem to satisfy my aging eyes and questionable ears … what would you do?
If you are in the market for a new car or truck this year, the IRS will assist by at least making the “sales tax” deductible. There are a few caveats, which includes a short window since the car, truck, motorhome or motorcycle needs to be purchase between February 16, 2009 and January 1, 2010 in order to be able to deduct the sales tax on your 2009 taxes. According to Cars.com, “this deduction is available for individuals with an adjusted gross income of less than $125,000, or for joint filers under $250,000. The deduction phases out for taxpayers whose AGIs fall between $125,000 and $135,000 for individuals and between $250,000 and $260,000 for joint filers. The deduction is only good for the taxes paid on a vehicle up to $49,500 of the purchase price. So if you buy a $70,000 car, you won’t be able to deduct the taxes for the additional $20,500.”
If you are near West Chester, Ohio in eastern Butler county Tuesday night, consider filling up your car while saying hello to volunteers from a church called Journey. (they meet at the Lakota East High School in Liberty Township on Sundays) According to Youth Minister, Luke Dooley (@yeloodekul), members will be staffing a couple pumps at the Thorntons gas station at the corner of Tylersville Road and Kingsgate (7301 Kingsgate Way) from 5 to 7 PM as part of their third annual “March Madness” campaign. They will be washing windshieds and topping off washer fluid as well as offering discounted fuel by 50 cents per gallon at those pumps staffed by Journey members (For my VW TDI friends, I don’t know about diesel fuel?). Nevertheless, stop in tonight and thanks them for their outreach.
Volkswagen Jetta TDI fans will enjoy seeing their long lasting and economical diesel being used in NYC as a taxicab. In the newer body style, rear seats have a couple more inches, so really the A5 Jetta makes perfect sense as a taxi. If you’ve ever looked at the trunk (boot), you’d know that luggage loading capacity is not a problem. Besides, I think think the VW Jetta looks great in yellow!
FoxNews kicked off a new interactive site call thefoxnation.com on March 30th in order to “leverage its brand online, especially among conservative true believers,” and by broadening the reach of “high-decibel” stars such as Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck to an online audience. After a quick review and watching the 1000s of comments flood in, I can’t imagine anyone actually bothering to read much of what people are saying, but it does offer a place for conservative to vent.
As far as usablity, it’s bad enough sifting through page after page of reader comments on normal comment based ‘news’ only sites, but The Fox Nation is like reading a ‘long winded’ Twitter stream without any filtering. If this site, which is now called a Beta, is going to be useful rather than a place for just venting political frustration, then users are going to need a method to sift through the pile of comments an interact believing what they are saying is heard. Leaving a comment the way it is now is like trying to communicate at a rock concert.
Volkswagen has done a great job with the design of the new Golf GTD. Its design is similar to the popular Rabbit Golf although has a noticeable sporty edge. VW says it will stress fuel efficiency, clean diesel and better performance over the European Golf TDI.
According to Motortrend, “under its hood is a more powerful edition of the regular TDI’s common-rail 2.0L four-cylinder making 168 hp. The powertrain puts out a minimal 139 grams of C02 per kilometer and achieves a claimed combined 44 mpg in the European cycle. It’ll top out at 138 mph and scoot to 62 mph in 8.1 sec. Either a regular six-speed manual or the brand’s six-speed DSG can be outfitted in the sportier little diesel.”
At this time, those of us in North America get usual answer when it come to importing European oil burners — “there is no word on the Golf GTD coming to the U.S. as of now.” Pricing in Euro dollars seems a little steep at 24,475 euros. ($32,537 US)
Congratulations Lee and Sachi LeFever. I saw your Common Craft video being used on the CBS Sunday Morning program during the commentary segment with Nancy Giles; CBS did used the ‘paid’ version I hope?
I’m not sure I the innuendo that a Twitter user might be a”Twit” is correct (“Tweep” might be correct though), but like many people who focus some of their time on technology and Internet world, I’m starting to get a little Twitter burn-out myself.
😳
Then again, there is a certain weirdness with the recent viral Twitter phenomenon. I think it may just crash and burn when the next ‘geek’ trend arrives — I wonder what it will be?
ADDED after posting: Someone sent me this clip and thought it was enjoyable enough to include.
Sort of a short sailing/vehicle post today as I noticed that Richard Jenkins from the UK brought the land speed record for a wind-powered vehicle this month. He reached 126.1 mph in his Greenbird “car” … if you can call it that. It reminds me of an ice boat, but is and extremely efficient and light weight carbon fiber composite vehicle that uses only metal in a few key places – wings bearing and wheels units. The “sail” is a solid wing design that resemble as a thin narrow airplane or glider wing rather than a sail.
The previous record was held by American Bob Schumacher of 116 mph in 1999, driving his Iron Duck vehicle so says a BBC report.
If you’ve been surfing the web for any length of time you’ve seen the artist ‘cartoon’ looking avatars. One company called Cartoonme.com makes it easy to convert a current photo into an avatar.
I tested the web based service the other day and received my €3.50 EUR ($4.89 US) cartoon-ish looking avatar back by email yesterday. I can’t say that the purchase is worth the 5 bucks, but it is nice to see a younger looking RichC!
I’ve also been contemplating if I should attempt to build/use an animated GIF avatar, similar to what sports broadcasting has been doing the last few years when showing a ‘live’ oriented head shot of a player. (ie. motion etc) I’ll put my example to the right … notice the blinking eyes!
I was talking to a friend about Miami University old WMUB’s “HelpDesk” radio program which has moved to the podcast only format now that the radio station is no longer broadcasting its own content (ended in February 2009). He asked me how to listen to the program now that it is no longer on the air since he was not familiar with receiving audio on the computer. My first suggestion was to use Apple‘s cross-platform iTunes software since it does a good job of collecting the latest podcasts from a variety of feeds — it is how I collect podcast on both my Mac desktop and Win7 Beta OS notebook.
BUT … listening for me is a different story since I’m often traveling and prefer using my Palm Treo with an earbud. Originally I synced files when I plugged my Treo into a USB cradle to back up my data (usually datebook, memos and contacts) with the Palm Desktop, but since I collect the podcast on my desktop computer and sync with my notebook without the podcasts, it doesn’t help. Instead, I use my desktop Mac to silently update the podcasts and make them available when I’m ready … so here is what I do:
Use the free iTunes software installed on my desktop Mac which collects ‘subscribed to’ podcasts. (Window OS computers would work just the same with iTunes)
I use Sugarsync to automatically — and immediately — back up my podcast folder which makes it available to all my devices online.
On my Palm Treo I use the bookmarked m.sugarsync podcast directory to locate the podcast I’m wanting to listen too – click photo above for large image.
With a single click I can begin listening with Kinoma, or save to my SD card and listen offline with pTunes – preferred since I can continue to take phone calls, etc.
This technique works well since I rarely listen to all the podcasts that collect on my desktop computer. It makes them available whereever I am with a couple clicks and the data rate isn’t all that challenging to stream.
Hint: Before downloading large-ish MP3 files to your phone, be sure you have the proper data plan and that your device ‘stays alive’ during a long file download. (podcast files like Leo Laporte’s “Tech Guy” podcasts are well over 50 megs — BTW, he’s the best in the business.)
I’ve been satisfied with Netflix since switching from Blockbuster Online for ‘mail delivered’ DVD and BluRay DVD movies. My wife and I generally watch one movie each week and have been comfortable with the service and choices available with the ‘one at a time’ subscription. Since we have a BluRay player, I opted for the $1.00 premium on top of our $8.99/month Netflix subscription ($9.99/month) which saved us $2 each month over their competitor, but noticed that Netflix as of April 27 will double that premium — $2.00/month for the BluRay option ($10.99/month). The amount is now only a dollar less then Blockbuster and doesn’t offer the 2 in-store exchanges which was a nice perk (although we did switch to Netflix for the TivoHD streaming option only currently available at Netflix).
If you are in the market for a new car or truck this year, the IRS will assist by at least making the “sales tax” deductible. There are a few caveats, which includes a short window since the car, truck, motorhome or motorcycle needs to be purchase between February 16, 2009 and January 1, 2010 in order to be able to deduct the sales tax on your 2009 taxes. According to 
If you are near West Chester, Ohio in eastern Butler county Tuesday night, consider filling up your car while saying hello to volunteers from a church called 
but like many people who focus some of their time on technology and Internet world, I’m starting to get a little Twitter burn-out myself.
If you’ve been surfing the web for any length of time you’ve seen the artist ‘cartoon’ looking avatars. One company called 
I’ve also been contemplating if I should attempt to build/use an animated GIF avatar, similar to what sports broadcasting has been doing the last few years when showing a ‘live’ oriented head shot of a player. (ie. motion etc) I’ll put my example to the right … notice the blinking eyes!
