Oh … its getting hot in the political kitchen as John Kerry fires up the Republicans with comments made on October 30th as we near the November elections. Senator Kerry used a few words yesterday that either were not carefully selected, or he just poorly communicated his point — strike one. Nevertheless, his damage control speech today did little to reduce the tension from his initial comments since he chose not to apologize to those serving in our Armed Forces — strike two — but instead attempted to turn the tables suggesting that “it is the President that owes the troops an apology.” How would you like to be the candidate that he was suppose to be helping win a few more votes? EDIT Wednesday, 11/1/2006:“I said it was a botched joke. Of course, I’m sorry about a botched joke,” Kerry, who had refused to apologize on Tuesday, said on the “Imus in the Morning” radio show on MSNBC.
What do you get when you take the nation’s biggest car company and a celebrity car buff creating a one of a kind sports car? A very cool alternatively powered (biodiesel mind you) supercar with a 650HP mid-engine Honeywell LT-101 modified turbine mated to a Corvette C6 transaxle and hydroformed aluminum frame. GM Advanced Design Studio’s joined Jay for this project car at the SEMA Show and have obviously injected a little “Cadillac” look to the carbon fiber body and lexan glass. Oh and yes of course Jay Leno crack a few jokes at the unveiling … “Will I drive it every day? Yeah, during the harvest.”
(See article at AutoBlogGreen.)
Jay Leno poses with jar of biodiesel
Most cellphone cameras are just a step above a pinhole camera in my opinion and have some improving to do before they are capable taking photos in other than perfect situations. That said, I’ve enjoyed experimenting with my Palm Treo 700p‘s 1.3 megapixel camera on my PDA/Cellphone and have enjoying ‘McGyver-ing‘ ways to take slightly better pictures. I often find myself wanting a quick copy of something crossing my desk only to realize that macro work is best left to a camera with a few more adjustments. In a few rushed moments I’ve found myself sticking a pair of glasses in front of the Treo just to see if it would help and it does — see photo below. Another fellow over at Treonauts has expanded on this and started using a magnifying glass so I’ve given it a try too since my Swiss Army knife has a loupe. Hey … it works! (photo above)
One foot away from calendar photo using glasses as macro lens
Start looking for a forced feed from Microsoft … Internet Explorer 7(BTW … the beta wasn’t bad). They are sending it as a critical update (???) for those of you running the “automatic updates.” I had heard it was going to be release on November 1st … but Happy Halloween … it came tonight! (Am I the only one thinking it is “scary” to get upgrades from Microsoft?) It it weren’t for all the new ‘calling home’ features in the new software I wouldn’t be so skeptical … but for some reason I don’t trust Microsoft’s updates anymore. Maybe I should just pass on this one for a while?
Now that YouTube is becoming part of Google(link), it needs to begin acting like a respectable company. First order of business is the eliminating of copyright infringing content is par for the course. Eventually I suspect that even the uploads will be heavily monitored before posting … much like Google Video? Is it time to start looking for the next YouTube?
🙁 According to a few stories, video clips from a variety of popular television programs including ones from Viacom’s Comedy Central like “South Park, The Colbert Report and The Daily Show” will be removed; it was just a matter of time.
UPDATE 10/31/2006: Viacom and YouTubereach a deal to allow clips to remain on the popular video sharing site according to a post on 606tech.com.
A fellow blogger and TDI friend, Jon Fry (his blog), from the UK sent me an interesting email with a news link about a young man that purchase a VW Polo TDI and had a few problems. I’m not endorsing anyone in the US attempt to document problems in this way, but it is interesting to see how effective using the internet can be when one has a grudge. This particular problem was picked up by a local paper, the Manchester Evening News, and they relayed the saga in this past Saturday’s paper. It seems that Anthony Ashton took it upon himself to record a video clip describing the issues he had with the car and posted the video on YouTube. Believe it or not, this questionable quality video has generated over 33,000 viewings to date!
The repair to my daughter’s VW Jetta TDI tallied at about $700, acceptable considering the initial body shop estimate was $1530. (see prior post) We were able to avoid a clear coat repair paint job by picking up a closely matching door at the highly recommended Brim Import Auto. (15363 County Road 140 East, Kenton, Ohio — Phone: 800.221.3874) Although some felt the old door could have been repaired and repainted, we opted to put a new door on the hinges.
Considering that there was impact damaged the structural beam inside the door, and that my daughter will be driving this car, I’m much more comfortable with a new door. Perhaps someday we’ll take care of the other dings and chips and give this great little car some new paint?
I suspect that most of you are like me and have created a hotmail, yahoo or gmail account or two just to have an email address to sign up for websites requiring an email for access. Unfortunately the full accounts require a login to webmail (Yahoo’s new service being pretty slow), pop mail set-up and cleaning up. Dodgeit.com offers a better solution that is a super-simple, effective and FREE receive-only email service. It’s ideal for signing in to your favorite newspaper site or whatever … in fact is even works a little bit like bugmenot.com which share login codes to many websites. Give them both a try if you haven’t seen them before.
David Eckstein, the St. Louis Cardinals shortstop, was presented the new Corvette Z06 as the most valuable player, but the win was most definitely a team effort. Jeff Weaver pitched an outstanding game 5 and propelled his team past the early favored Detroit Tigers. It took only five games to win this years World Series, one that was tarnished with errors from the year long stellar Tiger pitching staff. An unbelievable 8 errors were racked up by Detroits’ pitchers in only 5 games. Congratulations go out to players and fans of the World Champion St. Louis Cardinals.
Although I’m not a “gamer,” I can see applications for this kind of 360 degree view doing more than just computer game playing junkies. MSNBC published an article in its Tech/Science section showcasing Toshiba Corporations “dome-shaped headgear” that shows images in 260 synced with the motion of the wearer’s head. According to the article, the six pound bubblehead is still experimental, the helmet uses infrared sensors that detect which way the head is moving. A projector on the back then displays the proper image on the screen in front of the user. Check out the article here.
Oh … its getting hot in the political kitchen as John Kerry fires up the Republicans with comments made on October 30th as we near the November elections. Senator Kerry used a few words yesterday that either were not carefully selected, or he just poorly communicated his point — strike one. Nevertheless, his damage control speech today did little to reduce the tension from his initial comments since he chose not to apologize to those serving in our Armed Forces — strike two — but instead attempted to turn the tables suggesting that “it is the President that owes the troops an apology.” How would you like to be the candidate that he was suppose to be helping win a few more votes?
What do you get when you take the nation’s biggest car company and a celebrity car buff creating a one of a kind sports car? A very cool alternatively powered (biodiesel mind you) supercar with a 650HP mid-engine Honeywell LT-101 modified turbine mated to a Corvette C6 transaxle and hydroformed aluminum frame. GM Advanced Design Studio’s
joined Jay for this project car at the SEMA Show and have obviously injected a little “Cadillac” look to the carbon fiber body and lexan glass. Oh and yes of course Jay Leno crack a few jokes at the unveiling … “Will I drive it every day? Yeah, during the harvest.”
copy of something crossing my desk only to realize that macro work is best left to a camera with a few more adjustments. In a few rushed moments I’ve found myself sticking a pair of glasses in front of the Treo just to see if it would help and it does — see photo below. Another fellow over at 
Eventually I suspect that even the uploads will be heavily monitored before posting … much like 
purchase a VW Polo TDI and had a few problems. I’m not endorsing anyone in the US attempt to document problems in this way, but it is interesting to see how effective using the internet can be when one has a grudge. This particular problem was picked up by a local paper, the 
service. It’s ideal for signing in to your favorite newspaper site or whatever … in fact is even works a little bit like 
most definitely a team effort. Jeff Weaver pitched an outstanding game 5 and propelled his team past the early favored Detroit Tigers. It took only five games to win this years World Series, one that was tarnished with errors from the year long stellar Tiger pitching staff. An unbelievable 8 errors were racked up by Detroits’ pitchers in only 5 games. Congratulations go out to players and fans of the World Champion St. Louis Cardinals.
Although I’m not a “