Coming Soon from VW: A 69.9 MPG Diesel Hybrid
It’s official – Volkswagen is unveiling a hybrid to challenge the mighty Toyota Prius. And not just any hybrid, but a diesel-electric hybrid it says will deliver 69.9 mpg. This is the Hybrid I’ve been waiting for! Can’t wait till it is released and comes State-side.
Answers sought in Fla. blackout
Energy experts are trying to figure out today why a small malfunction shut down a major nuclear power plant and knocked out electricity to one-sixth of Florida’s population. The good news is that the safety features at Turkey Point worked as designed preventing a larger problem.
The Truth About DVRs
Wondering why you can’t buy a digital video recorder without also signing up for TiVo or a specific cable service? According to this article it is a conspiracy. In reality, it is a standards issue. FCC mandate wasn’t timed correctly and technology is growing to fast and without standards. Regardless, the cable companies haven’t exactly been working over time to meet the requirements. So you could go the complete other route… Over-the-Air HDTV, Netflix for movies, and internet for most other needs. That is the route I’ve taken and I can’t complain yet.
Eskimo village sues over global warming
A tiny Alaska village eroding into the Arctic Ocean sued two dozen oil, power and coal companies Tuesday, claiming that the large amounts of greenhouse gases they emit contribute to global warming that threatens the community’s existence. The city of Kivalina and a federally recognized tribe, the Alaska Native village of Kivalina, sued Exxon Mobil
Touch-tone calling systems
Have you ever called a company support line and found yourself looking at your phone with every option? Well I got off the phone with Costco's Pharmacy and was surprised to find that all options ignored the center row of numbers… Basically all options were 'press 1' or 3 no 2. Smart move, it is a lot easier to press the outside buttons than the inside….
Cruise lines offering healthier foods
I just read this story on CNN… it discusses food on cruise ships and how they are getting better. “Sailing away on a cruise ship with a midnight buffet no longer means waving goodbye to your diet.” That all said, part of going on a cruise is the food and all of it. That was my one request to Lauren when we went on our cruise for our honeymoon… after months of dieting… there was to be no worries on the cruise. But along the lines of healthier food, our honeymoon was with Celebrity Cruise Lines this past June. At every meal there were vegetarian options and lighter portions available, heck even the ‘grill’ buffet on the deck had veggie burgers available. As compared to our previous cruise with Carnival… the food options on Celebrity is one reason we will probably continue to cruise with them and not Carnival (plus Carnival has to many drunk people, but they are the ‘Party Ship’, I’m just not a party shipper).
Toshiba quits HD DVD ‘format war’
“Toshiba said Tuesday it will no longer manufacture HD DVDs, effectively ending the long-running battle with the rival Blu-ray for a dominant high-definition format.” Well I guess it is about time, but I just think the name ‘Blu-ray’ sounds funny. Come on.. it made/make sense when one says “I’m going to go buy/rent a video/dvd” and I can see where saying the same with highdef-dvd sounds good, but “Hi I’d like a Blu-ray” sound like a fruity cocktail drink.
Toshiba quits HD DVD ‘format war’
“Toshiba said Tuesday it will no longer manufacture HD DVDs, effectively ending the long-running battle with the rival Blu-ray for a dominant high-definition format.” Well I guess it is about time, but I just think the name ‘Blu-ray’ sounds funny. Come on.. it made/make sense when one says “I’m going to go buy/rent a video/dvd” and I can see where saying the same with highdef-dvd sounds good, but “Hi I’d like a Blu-ray” sound like a fruity cocktail drink.
Coincidental timing
Mixx To Cluster Related Stories – Digg Should Have Done This
The above link is for a story posted at TechCrunch about Mixx adding a feature that yesterday I complained didn’t exist in Digg. So I guess I’m not the person who had this complaint.
Well anyways… I took a swing by Mixx to take a look. While yes they now have the option to mark related stories, they are missing the main feature that is why I’ve stayed away from StumbleUpon and Reddit. The feature I like from Digg is the ‘Blog this’ feature. Basically rather than have to post to a share site and then post to my blog, I can choose to post from with in Digg. Now yes there could be improvements made to the blogging client, but it is there. Maybe they all have this feature, I just haven’t been able to find it. Oh well I guess no app is perfect….
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Microsoft jumps on the open bandwagon
According to a wordy press release issued by the company, the Redmond giant will begin embracing an open attitude by publishing documentation for all of its “high-volume product” APIs free of charge, will detail patents it holds and applications that cover its protocols… at first thought “is it April first already”… but then again, they could be having the tech version of a mid-life crises.. they already have the sports cars…. so the next this to do is to jump in bed with open source… oh wait they did that too with the agreement/deal with Novell… I think the truth is that they are finally realizing there image problem after the fall out with the Yahoo announcement… the blogosphere exploded with dislike and distrust for Microsoft. Heck I’m one of them, I’ve already started migrating some of my services away from Yahoo. The other problem is that they are loosing developers to web apps since developers are tired of having to fight for information. In todays developer environment, if the docs aren’t open and available… we’ll look elsewhere for a solution… and solution there are and they are out there….
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February 21, 2008 Posted by nickc321 | commentary, news | | No Comments Yet