Posted By RichC on October 3, 2006
For Tuesday, October 3rd, 2006, the Dow Jones Industrial Average close at its highest level ever at 11,727.74 after spiking at 11,758.95. The surge in stocks was credited to oil slumping to a 14-month low. The thinking is that lower energy costs will boost consumer spending and prevent a slowdown in the U.S. economy.
Posted By RichC on October 2, 2006
Some of you might have remembered reading my comments on Sling Media and the very cool Slingbox. The device hooks up to your home or office broadband network AND to a cable tv signal and transmits television (or even DVR recordings) over the Internet through proprietary software where ever you decide to connect. (the faster connection the better) Interestingly, with the advent of high speed data plans and video capable phones offered by cellphone companies, it possible to start ‘slinging’ to a phone.
About 6 months ago Sling Media offered their software for Window Mobile devices like the Motorola Q, Palm Treo 700w and others. Palm OS and Symbian devices heard very little about ‘slinging’ on devices running their operating systems … until now. It looks as if Sling might be working on something as we speak. The folks over at Engadget just posted an ‘update’ after talking to Sling and they indeed confirmed that their will be a Symbian and a Palm OS player for the Slingbox. What they have concluded is that the the Mac client will come first, followed by the Symbian client within 30 days and finally a Palm client in the fourth quarter. I will anxiously await this new client for my Palm Treo 700p and post as so as I get the beta running. (I’ve been on the beta list at Sling Media since May!)
Posted By RichC on October 1, 2006
Since the Cincinnati Bengals game is at 4:30pm today, I had a chance to cut the backyard grass (with the help of my son) and finish adding a stone drainage area behind the garage. (Treo 700p cell phone photo) Really this is just an excuse to see if my phone to blog is still up and running.
🙂
EDIT: Used Preloadr to tweak my Flickr photo.
Posted By RichC on October 1, 2006
The interior of Virgin Galactic’s Space Ship Two was unveiled at the New York Wired Nextfext by Sir Richard Branson this past week. The notable enterpreneur announced that “It won’t be much different than this.†He comments that “It’s strange to think that in 12 months we’ll be unveiling the actual plane, and then test flights will commence right after that.â€
The “spaceliners” will be built by Scaled Composites in Mojave, California by the company well know for pioneering many aviation ventures. Two or the most famous projects were Virgin Atlantics Global Flyer and the $10-million dollar X-prize winning Space Ship One designed by veteran aerospace designer Burt Rutan. (see Airventure photos and comments from 2005) The new Space Ship Two will be belly launched much like the smaller Space Ship One on from a much larger plane being built especially for the job call White Knight Two, after the first hauler White Knight One. According to Virgin Galatic president Will Whitehorn, the ‘spaceliner’ is designed to seat eight people – two pilot and six paying passengers – and pay they will considering the initial ticket price is $200,000. The flight will be about 2-1/2 hours and rocket to a maximum of 68 miles above the earth after being release at 60,000 feet by White Knight Two.
Test flights are scheduled to begin in early 2008 and eventually take passengers up from a ‘spaceport’ being built in New Mexico call Spaceport America. An interesting understated challenge is that of building the massive White Knight Two. It will be the size of a Boeing 757 and double as a training platform for passenger prior to space flight. According to Space.com, there have been 4447 astronauts to date; Virgin Galactic should change that considering they will eventually be scheduling 2 flight per week.
If you are short dollars for a Space Ship Two ticket, you could do what Alan Watts from England has done. He has cashed in his two million frequent flyer miles earned in the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club which are valid with new sister company Virgin Galactic. At aged 51, his space flight has been scheduled for 2009.
Posted By RichC on September 30, 2006
I’m generally not attracted to poetry, or classical prose for that matter, but I do have a couple of favorites. One such poet is Robert Frost who’s recently discovered poem is being published in the Virginia Quarterly Review. The poem entitled “War Thoughts at Home” was discovered 88 years after it was handwritten in the front of close friend’s book by graduate student Robert Stilling. Frost, who died in 1963, wrote the poem in distress after loosing a friend in 1918 during World War I according to scholars. Although this is not the first Frost poem to be discovered this way, it might be the last.
The somber 35 line poem was uncovered as Stilling was cataloging the papers of Frost’s friend Frederic Melcher, who in 1947 wrote a letter which referred to an unpublished handwritten poem in a copy of Frost’s book “North of Boston”. For an indepth read of Frost’s original notetaking, Harvard University Press has an 848 page transcription the details the thoughts of this “loved and misunderstood writer.”
Since I can’t leave you with the new poem, I’ll offer up one of my two favorites, maybe I’ll use the other one another time?
🙂
The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost -1915
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Posted By RichC on September 29, 2006
The rain and cold front passed, the sky cleared and the sun melted behind a scenic Ohio farm setting as I made my usual 4 hour drive home from Cleveland to Cincinnati last night. The soothing autumn sun set made for a relaxing trip as it disappeared behind fields of future renewable fuel.
😉
Fuel prices were down again this week which should be good news for consumers and our pocketbooks; this is particularly helpful since heating season is right around the corner. I noticed Flying J was selling diesel for $2.37/gallon along Interstate 71 and that some independent stations even posted gasoline under $2.00/gallon. I talked with someone yesterday who even filled up with unleaded gasoline for $1.94/gallon!
I’ve made my regular fueling stop the new renewable fuel Sunoco at exit 151 off of Interstate 71. Since its opening my Volkswagen Jetta TDI has been sipping (45.5mpg) from their biodiesel pump. This week I topped off with 14.57 gallons of B20 at $2.53.
Posted By RichC on September 28, 2006
The chief measuring stick for the stock market, the Dow Jones Industrials, closed at 11,718.45 and briefly traded at record levels today. Shortly after the 9:30 market open, the index was trading above its record high close of 11,722.98 set back on January 14th, 2000. For some this milestone seems to pale in comparison to the crazy euphoria day after day record highs of the 90’s stock market boom; to others today’s high was a thankful relief, a relief to have weathered terrorism, corporate scandals and a recession. Many believe we are now seeing the effects of better management, tax relief and a carefully managed federal reserve — all crucial for steady growth. Although the market has been rising since its low in 2002, it has not been without its doubters. The years end and possible political change could prove to be the ‘pin’ if our recent high is indeed a ‘bubble?’ As we approach that ‘investor dreaded’ month of October, some are preparing their portfolios for a possible correction while others continue to bully the market forward working to make up for the weaker investment returns that were notable in the first half of this decade. I have to admit, from an investors standpoint, the recent trading above 11,000 and the uncertainly of this November’s mid-term election sends a chill down my spine.
Posted By RichC on September 27, 2006
Venezuelan-controlled Citgo Petroleum Corporation is being dumped as gasoline supplier for the convenience store operator 7-Eleven according to a statement released by the company. This is a major chance for 7-Eleven since the two companies have had close relationship considering Citgo has supplied 7-Eleven’s 2,100 locations for 20 years. The action comes only a week afterw derogatory comments were made by President Hugo Chavez toward the President of the United States. In a speech delivered to the United Nations Chavez went so far as to refer to President Bush as “the devil.”
Earlier this year, the conservative American Family Association pushed boycott action against Citgo due to it being a Venezuelan government controlled company who’s President openly chastised American and its President. The attention and ongoing feud between countries, and more accurately ‘leaders,’ generated some comments on this blog back in March of 2006.
Posted By RichC on September 27, 2006
As much as I like Crocs as a company, a stock (CROX) and as a trendy shoe ‘fad,’ the recent jump in stock price in a hot stock market triggered one of my self imposed trading rules today: it moved 15% up or down in 3 days so I sold at $34.64 this morning. (I’m a big advocate of several 3 day trading rules)
I learned about Crocs after wearing this shoe and stomping around the beaches of Hawaii on a recent vacation. I of course started seeing them everywhere after wearing them and being impressed. (that’s usually the way it is … you don’t notice everybody that has something until you have it) I found them very comfortable and definitely unique and decided I would invest a few dollars in the stock CROX. Obviously I’m not the only one noticing this fad as I watched the stock continue to show good volume. I hate to sell and I suspect on the next downturn I’ll repurchase the shares … now to figure out how to write off the vacation as an investigative investment trip!
😀
Crocs, Inc. engages in the design, manufacture, and marketing of footwear for men, women, and children under the ‘crocs’ brand worldwide. The company produces soft and lightweight, nonmarking, and slip- and odor-resistant shoes. It also manufactures and sells a line of crocs-branded apparel and accessory items, which include t-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, beanies, and socks, sunglasses, baseball hats, power straps, and kneepads; and nonbranded products, such as spa pillows and kayak seats that are marketed to original equipment manufacturers. The company sells its products through various footwear channels, including specialty footwear stores, outdoor retailers, and sporting goods and department stores. It also sells its products through other specialty channels, including gift shops, uniform suppliers, independent bicycle dealers, specialty food retailers, health and beauty stores, and other specialty stores. In addition, Crocs sells its products directly to consumers through its Web site, www.crocs.com, and through company-operated kiosks that are located in high foot traffic areas. As of December 31, 2005, it operated 50 retail kiosks domestically and internationally. The company distributes its products through approximately 6,500 store locations in the United States. The company was founded in 1999 as Western Brands, LLC and changed its name to Crocs, Inc. in January 2005. Crocs is based in Niwot, Colorado.
Posted By RichC on September 27, 2006
Information Week offered a report card review on several of the most popular Internet browsers like: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Opera. I’ve used several popular browsers and have adopted Firefox as my personal favorite. (I’m also fond of the fact it runs the same on Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems) Nevertheless, the latest version running on my notebook — 1.5.0.7 — seems a little less stable than previous versions. (am I alone?) I’ve also been playing with the new ‘tab’ browsing capable Internet Explorer 7.0.5 and its impressive but incorrectly displays many pages or as Microsoft might say … the pages were incorrectly designed. As for the Mac based Safari browser running on an Intel based Mac, its the fastest of the bunch in my ‘seat of the pants’ testing but suffers from incompatibilities that I’ve yet to over come. (some news websites video, etc) Opera seems fine, but I’ve not given it a fair trial. I suspect that it would see more success if the competition for ‘free’ Internet browsing software wasn’t as prevalent? Oh … let’s not forget Netscape, its still alive and kicking. As so far as I know, there is still a loyal user base,
but I’m not running it so can’t really comment. The same goes for the Linux based Konqueror browser … although I did play with it a bit and found it a great browser. For regular use, I still prefer Firefox running on Linux, Mac or Windows.
As for the actual ‘security’ review, the article I mentioned indicated that over the last six months “that 7 out of every 10 new vulnerabilities uncovered from January through June were bugs in Web applications.” The total number of vulnerabilities found in the six-month period hit 2,249, an 18 percent jump over the second half of 2005. Of these web vulnerabilities, the most significant numbers are with browsers themselves.
The Numbers:
Internet Explorer led the pack with 38 new issues which was a 52 percent jump over the previous 25 flaws. Apple doubled their previous 6 problems with Safari in 2005 to 12 this year. Unfortunately the open-source Mozilla Firefox took top honors for ‘numbers’ … they had 47 vulnerabilities according to Symantec, a company specializing in PC and software security. Mozilla was quick to point out that the numbers don’t tell the full story since attacks aimed at browsers happen twice as often to Internet Explorer users than to Firefox users.
Another number is the “How quick to fix a problem” number or as Symantec calls it: “time-to-patch.” Here is where the open-source browsers have an advantage. Mozilla was able to patch their browser in 1 day, Opera took only 2, Apple’s Safari 5 days and the behemoth Microsoft took 9 days to patch their product, Internet Explorer. My plans are to stick with Firefox, how about you?
EDIT: A rather ‘timely’ update for this post:
Microsoft Corp. rushed out a fix Tuesday for a security flaw in its Internet Explorer Web browser after attackers had begun exploiting the vulnerability to take control of computers.
The Redmond-based software maker said it was putting out the fix ahead of the next scheduled security fix release date on Oct. 10 because of the severity of the problem. The flaw carries Microsoft’s highest “critical” rating.
The vulnerability in Microsoft’s browser is particularly worrisome to security experts because computer users could come under attack just by visiting a Web site that had been manipulated to take advantage of the flaw. That, in turn, would give an attacker complete control of a user’s computer, including access to e-mails, personal information and other data.
