June 18th, 2009
View this fun graphic on Power draining vampires.

Some appliances unplugged will save you some bux.
Posted in 06-Jun 22, 2009, 2009 shows, Business and Economy, Main Story, Uncategorized | No Comments »
June 15th, 2009
It went mostly smooth. The FTA (Free-To-Air) television in the U.S. is now all digital.
The only well documented hiccup is from a surprising source: Windows Media Server users got a gliltch.
12 millions folks were not ready. But, really, would they ever get ready? A certain percentage of the population are procrastinators. I’m one, so consider that insider information :).
Prediction from John: expect the conversion boxes to drop in price to about $15 in about 6 months. That’s what they are worth. That is what they were always worth at that volume. But a $40 coupon pretty much guarantees that nobody went below $40.
From Mike: it’s sucks for those at the edge of coverage. It just does. Digital does not degrade well. So if you are on the “border” of getting analog signal, you will probably lose digital signal. For some, a better antenna helps. For others, the only way around it is with a tower. (examples)
Posted in 06-Jun 15, 2009, 2009 shows, Local, Main Story | No Comments »
June 15th, 2009
Good luck with the launch. This will be mission STS-127.
It was delayed earlier to yet another hydrogen leak. Hydrogen is very hard to keep contained in general. It’s corrosive. The molecules are so small they can penetrate metal (slowly hopefully) in most circumstances.
And, let’s face it, the shuttles have been due to retirement for a long while.
Posted in 06-Jun 15, 2009, 2009 shows, Main Story | No Comments »
June 15th, 2009
After a month in space, the Herschel Telescope finally opened it’s doors and is in place to start seeing the universe.
It was critical step, because if it failed to open, there really is no way to repair something that far into deep space. Space shuttle simply can’t get that far.
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
June 8th, 2009
I brought home the new Palm smartphone over the weekend– the Pre. The iPhone has been called the “Jesus Phone,” which makes the Pre a sort of “hail Mary.” I’m not sure how many of these Palm has to sell to stay in business, but it’s probably more than were sold its debut weekend.
The screen really is a looker– I think it may look better than the original iPhone’s display, though it is smaller. Many of the phone’s physical and software touches look like Apple ideas, and the card in the packaging that declares “Designed In and Inspired By California” is definitely an Apple out-take. Check out how many on the Palm team came over from Apple.
The handset is rugged enough– better build quality than my last Sprint phone, the Mogul. A recent tear-down article puts the per-unit build cost at $170.
What I like so far– quality of the camera, real multitasking, the interface. What I don’t like — lack of snappiness when starting apps & changing orientation of the display.
Posted in 06-Jun 08, 2009, 2009 shows, Main Story, New Gadgets | No Comments »