In The 80's

I'm not talking about parachute pants and hair bands. I'm talking about the weather. I live in the Tampa Bay area of Florida. And yesterday we were in the 80's. We should hit 82 today. We actually had to put the AC on for a little while yesterday. How cool is that (I won't even say it).

And that, my friends, is why I love Florida...

A Little Dusty

Wow, I need to shake the dust off this thing, eh? Time sure fly's by. It's sad but I did not post at all in 2010. In fact, it's been almost 2 years since my last post. I think I'll start posting again. I think...

Mail Goggles

I was reading on the "Official Google Blog" today that Gmail is 5 years old. Time sure flies. Over the years they have built in a lot of nice features. But none take the cake like this one does.

New in Labs: Stop sending mail you later regret

Basically, if you are the type who likes to have a few drinks and then send out late night emails to ex-girlfriends, etc... this is a feature you will want to enable right away. Here is how it works. When you hit the "send" button, before Gmail will actually send your email, you will be required to solve a few math problems. If you can't pass the test, it won't send your email. Funny stuff!

By default it is not enabled. But you can turn it on by going to your settings, click on Labs, and then scroll down to Mail Goggles!

For the record, I do not have this enabled. :-)

Space Junk

There is a lot of junk cruising around in space.  They estimate that there could be over a million pieces of space junk out there.  Most of it is smaller than a tennis ball.  And it comes from pieces of old rocket boosters, parts of broken satellites, and tools that the astronauts have dropped while space-walking.  All of this pose a serious risk to the space mission.  They say it's a bigger risk than accidents on liftoff or landing.  This junk isn't just floating around space.  It's moving at incredible speeds - 21,600 mph.  That is fast!

Jim Hollopeter, a rocket designer, has come up with a solution for the junk floating around in space.  He wants to use old rockets, armed with water guns, to shoot the junk.  The idea is that the water guns will shoot the junk toward the atmosphere where it will burn up.

Cool!  I love this kind of stuff!

Kindle (for the iPhone)

Ever since Kindle 2 came out, I've been really interested in it. The price is the barrier to entry for me right now though. $359.00 is more than I can justify knowing that my life savings are hemorrhaging due to the current economic situation.

But today I discovered that Amazon has a Kindle App for the iPhone. And it's free. So I downloaded it. I went to Amazon.com and I bought my first Kindle book.

I have to say that I am definitely impressed. It's actually really easy to read on my iPhone. You can adjust the font size (you get 5 different size options - the middle/default appears to be best for me). The pages turn quickly. And the overall navigation is nice. And best of all, it remembers what page you read last.

They also have an application called Whispersync that automatically syncs your reading location on different devices. So if you have a Kindle and an iPhone, when you switch back and forth it remembers the last page read on either device. Very nice!

And books are much cheaper this way. Best sellers and new releases are $9.99. And a lot of older books are less than that.

2 Year Hiatus is Over

Wow, has it really been two + years since I last posted? Time sure flies when you are busy. But you know, sometimes it's good to unplug for a while.

As I was doing some needed maintenance and upgrades to my blog, I went back and read through all of my posts.  It's funny how I was so excited about some new tools & sites back then that I just take for granted now.  Like Gmail.  Remember when you had to be invited to use Gmail? One of my posts even mentioned an ad on craigslist where someone was willing to trade their couch for a Gmail account.  Seems like so long ago.  And speaking of craigslist, I even posted about it when it was still relatively new.   Oh, and how about Segway Scooters.  Remember when they first hit the scene?  They never really took off quite like everyone expected did they?  And I was a big fan of the iPod.  Well, today my iPhone has one built in.  :-)

July 8th, 2003.  That was the date of my first post on this blog.  It has been a lot of fun.  The break was nice.  But I think I'll get back to posting again from time to time.

Cheers!

Want to Rent a Rotary Phone?

I was listening to Clark Howard this morning and heard something I couldn't believe. Do you remember the old rotary phones? Well, many years ago the phone companies would lease these to you for use in your home. According to ABC News, back in 1985 AT&T gave customers the option to opt out of renting. They said the numbers dropped from 40 million to about 750,000 today. WHAT? Are you kidding? I can't believe that many people still rent those old rotary phones. In fact, ABC News reported that an 82 year old woman had been leasing 2 phones for the past 42 years. Her grandchildren discovered the bill and found that she had paid $14,000 over the years for these old phones. So, if you have know of anyone still renting a phone from the phone company, do the right thing and buy them a phone for Christmas.

Wheelsurf

Beyond Tomorrow had a clip on the Wheelsurf. Very cool... I'd like to try it!

The Wheelsurf is a motorised monocycle powered by a chainsaw engine. Designed by Brazilian engineer Tito Lucas Ott, the rider sits inside the turning wheel, and steers by leaning the whole machine into corners – hence ‘surfing’. - Beyond Tomorrow

Self Publishing with Lulu.Com

Fast, Easy, & Free... www.lulu.com provides a great service for those who have always wanted to write a book but didn't think they could land a publishing deal.

Publishers typically only look for books that sell 10,000 copies or more (according to an article in Business 2.o titled "Freedom of the Press"). That makes it very challenging for first time authors. But with Lulu, you can use their one-stop, do-it-yourself, on-demand publishing.

With Lulu, you can publish books, CDs, DVDs, Images, or Calendars.

The 62,000-Mile Elevator Ride

Another great article in Business 2.o.

The 62,000-Mile Elevator Ride
Rockets are old news. The hottest idea in space enterprise is a tether to take us all the way from Earth to orbit...

Want to bring down the cost of sending cargo into space? Just build an elevator. Since the Earth is constantly spinning, if you attach a counterweight to it with a cable, and put it 62,000 miles away, the cable will be tight enough to run an elevator or car up it.

The theory has been around for a long time. But it was only recently that a material was discovered that would be strong enough for the cable or ribbon - Nanotubes. Nanotubes can be 100 times stronger than steel and weigh only a fifth as much.

The LiftPort Group is a company that is working on a space elevator.

Fundable.org

I just read a cool article in Business 2.0 - Fund-Raising Goes Peer-to-Peer.

Fundable.org lets groups of people pool their money to make purchases or raise money. Some examples include:
- Splitting the cost of something big (pool money for gifts, real estate, parties)
- Buying a product in bulk to save money
- Rasing money for a personal project
- Non-profit organizations, political candidates
- Business ventures

You can even set it up so that you only collect from people if you reach your stated goal. Pretty cool....

Dig'n the iPod

I now have two iPods. I have a...

- 20GB Photo w/Color Display
Holds up to 5,000 songs or 20,000 photos

- Shuffle
Holds up to 120 songs

I have to admit, I use the shuffle the most. I love the 20GB because it stores my entire music library on it. It's definitely impressive. But what I end up doing is just creating & listening to playlists. So I just load a playlist on the shuffle, and I'm on my way. It's a lot easier to carry. The 20GB is clunky compared to the shuffle which is about the size of a bic lighter.

Keep the Change

I love creative ways to save money. And I just discovered a pretty cool little idea from Bank of America. It's called...

Keep the Change

Each time you use your debit card, Bank of America rounds the transaction up to the nearest dollar. Then they transfer the difference to your savings account. The best part? For the first 3 months they'll match your savings 100%. Pretty cool.

I realize that the net savings amount isn't going to be huge. But every little bit helps. Here's an example of how this program could work.

Example based on 50 transactions per month and an average savings of $.45 per transaction (and it does not include the match):

50 X $.45 = $22.50
$22.50 X 12 months = $270

In this example you would save $270 per year. Well, you won't get rich. But the average person in this country has a serious problem saving money. So creative savings techniques are always encouraged.

The Tipping Point

I just purchased an audio book on iTunes called The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. I added it to my iPod.

After I listen to the book, I will post some comments about it.

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