National Speed Limit is Simply...Unamerican!

A screwball Senator is proposing a national speed limit to save gas.

That's a bizarre suggestion for this country, which is infamous for its willingness to just let market forces work things out.

No, instead, we should just tax the heck out of gasoline and let people decide how fast they can afford to go...if they can afford to go at all.

Or better yet, let's take those tax revenues and actually invest in public transportation infrastructure. If we also reward good local development decisions, people might not require a car for 99.99% of their trips. And that would be the best situation by far.

BTW, here's a nifty Department of Energy report from April, 2008 on gasoline usage trends chock-a-block full of graphs, charts, and other statistical goodness. Enjoy!

Posted on July 5, 2008 by Craig in Cars and Society / Politics and Travel
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Fox News Achieves New Low

Apparently, Fox News is dead set upon further distancing itself from all "truthiness." According to the Silicon Alley Insider, it has begun doctoring photos to make people it doesn't like appear uglier, stranger, and unlikable.

Here's an example:

So they removed some of his hair, stretched his head, gave him black circles under his eyes, and yellowed his teeth.

Sheesh...and to think there are still people who believe Fox News is a legitimate journalistic endeavor.

Read the complete story here. (alleyinsider.com)

Posted on July 4, 2008 by Craig in Popular Media and Society / Politics
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Soccer Dad Obama

While I'm not into reality TV shows or paparazzi-style reporting, it is tremendously refreshing to see a political candidate living his life...or, rather, living that part of his life he seems to share so many of the rest of us.

Watch this short video on CNN about the Obamas at their daughter's soccer game and I think you'll agree they seem more like your typical American family than nearly any other major politician in recent memory.

Posted on July 3, 2008 by Craig in Society / Politics
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The Upside of $4 Gasoline

Time.com has positively deviated from the typical "gas prices are awful, aren't they?" approach most journalists take when writing about the fuel situation. Instead of adding to the incessant yammering about how life is going down the crapper because of $4 gas, they decide to highlight 10 positives that might come about because of it:

1. Globalized jobs return home
   
2. Sprawl stalls
   
3. 4-day work weeks
   
4. Less pollution
   
5. More frugal use of transportation
   
6. Fewer traffic deaths
   
7. Cheaper car insurance
   
8. Less traffic
   
9. More cops out of their cars
   
10. Less obesity

Now, I'm not confident all these will happen just because of high gas prices, but you have to give them a nod for at least trying to remind us that some good will likely come out of this.

Read the whole story here.

Posted on July 2, 2008 by Craig in Cars and Health & Medicine and Industry and Other and Society / Politics and Technology and Travel
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Should I Fix My Wife's TiVo?

So, apparently, while we were on vacation a couple weeks ago, the landline modem in my wife's TiVo died...again!

Her TiVo is a Series 1...one of the original Philips models (apparently, they featured ultra-crappy modems). It has a lifetime subscription on it, so it's tough for me to just chuck it (and I doubt anybody is going to want to buy it).

If this was our only TiVo, there would be no debate...it would be fixed (actually, it would have already been fixed...my wife loves her TiVo as much as...dare I say "me?"). But, we have a second TiVo ("my" TiVo), a Series 2 model with all the Internet-based goodies, so she's now using that one.

Thus, my debate is this: do I chuck (or sell for the cost of shipping) a TiVo with a bum modem and a lifetime subscription, or do I spend $50 and get it fixed? Given that the HDD in this thing is nearing 7 years old, I can't imagine it's going to live much longer on that front, either.

So, what should I do? Repair it or no?

Posted on July 1, 2008 by Craig in Home A/V
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My Apple Airport Extreme Base Station Woes

I apologize for the recent 3 days of GearBits.com outage. The cause was my shift from an old Netgear 802.11g router/access point to a shiny new Apple Airport Extreme 802.11n router.

The problems were several, but suffice to say that the main unresolved issue lays in the AE's inability to suck down DHCP information from my ISP. Is it the AE's fault or my ISP's fault? I don't know...it just doesn't work. So, after figuring that out and entering in all the data manually, I now have to reset the broadband modem each time I update the router's configuration.

Sure it's a pain-in-the-ass, but now we have 802.11n (my laptop says it's connected at 144mbps) and I'll soon be adding an external drive to the AE for some inexpensive NAS action.

Anyway, things are back up and they should pretty much stay that way until I switch out the webserver sometime in the next week or so (the 5+-year-old WinXP machine, which is powered by a 1.2GHz AMD Athlon with 512 megs of RAM will soon be replaced by a new dual-core Mac Mini, so the site should be a bit more responsive).

So, sorry again...I'll now return you to your arguments over how much Time Warner Cable sucks, griping about FedEx Smartpost, and reminiscing about TV shows from your childhood.

Posted on June 30, 2008 by Craig in Computing and Wireless
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George Carlin, Dead at 71

George Carlin, a brilliant comedian, died of heart failure today at a California hospital.

I'm not sure what I think of first when I remember Carlin: his take on stuff, his infamous seven words bit, his role in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, or his role in Dogma.

Any way you slice it, the world is a little less funny without George Carlin in it.

Posted on June 23, 2008 by Craig in Popular Media
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Share Large Files with Wikisend

Have an attachment too big to email? Wikisend makes it pretty easy to distribute files up to 100MB in size without a lot of hassle. And it's free, and free is good.

Posted on June 21, 2008 by Craig in Computing and Internet
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Another Reason Why Streetcars Are Better than Buses

Apparently, a man rear-ended a Cincinnati city bus and then claimed he didn't see it.

A bus. You know, they're quite large...pretty hard to overlook.

And what do you think the man was driving when he hit the bus?

Yep...another bus.

At least that's one problem we shouldn't have with streetcars.

Posted on June 12, 2008 by Craig in Other and Travel
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ZAP Alias: Hot Electric 3-Wheeler in 2009

Want to go electric? Want to look reasonably cool while doing so? Then check out the new ZAP Alias.

The Alias will be available in 2009 and will have some pretty hot specs to go along with that sweet body:
• 0-60 mph: 7.7 seconds (not Tesla quick, but quick enough for most)
• Top speed: 100 mph
• Range: 100 miles on a charge

$32,500 is a bit steep for a two-seater, but you can pretty much guarantee you'll be the only one on your block with one.

Posted on June 11, 2008 by Craig in Cars
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Bob's Hot/Not List

Following the trend of GearBits author Hot/Not lists... here's mine.

HOT

• NBA - The classic Lakers/Celtics playoff rivalry has made me happy to watch professional sports again.
• Sci-Fi eBooks - Thanks to the new Tor.com new website promotion more people are getting into eBooks. Sign up and get some fine quality literature delivered to you for free in electronic format. It's nice to have additional reading choices on your next business flight, without the bulk of paper books.
• Subaru - I feel bad about the gas milage, but I still love driving my wife's Subaru Legacy GT wagon. Co-workers bragging about their Acura TLs are humbled when they realize that this family wagon beats them 0-60.
• Telework - Unless you have kids at home during the day, teleworking rocks. Who doesn't want to save gas money? I have a better office and faster computer hardware at home, anyway.
• Web20... at Work - You got your LinkedIn, Pulse, Naymz, whatever account last year. Now that you're teleworking, you'll need to be more social to stay in touch with co-workers. Can twitter replace the office water cooler?

NOT

• Paying Extra for Baggage - The airline baggage charge further exacerbates the problem of travel-newbs and their oversize carry-ons.
• Comcast Triple Play - The Comcast sales office in my county is extremely busy. It's busy with people returning their cable boxes.
• New Hybird/Eletric Car Designs - As of this week, I am finally bored of announcements about new designs for alternative vehicles. When will something finally appear at a store near me?
• Feedlot Beef - I just read Omnivore's Dilemma. What nasty stuff have I been eating all these years?
• Classroom Corporate Training - Is it responsible to pay for a flight and hotel for a training class in Chicago, when a webinar can get you at least half the knowledge you need? Maybe the company will take the money you save and give you a raise to help cover inflation.

Posted on June 6, 2008 by Bob in Other
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Mitch's Hot/Not List

Mitch, seeing my Hot/Not list from yesterday, compiled his own, so here it is:

HOT

• iPod Touch - I tried the Archos 605 Wi-Fi first and its mediocrity makes the Touch that much more delightful. I really love well done user interfaces and this one is first rate. My only complaint is its picky eating habits when it comes to video formats.
  
• iMac - I waited longer than any other tech purchase to finally go with Apple's all-in-one desktop PC. I opted for the top of the line 3.06 GHz 24" model and have been completely blown away by it. So far I have found no flaws. It is stunning.
  
• High Gas Prices - Innovation rocks and if it takes $5/gallon gasoline to get us out of this oil addiction then I'm more than willing to pay my dues. Fewer SUVs and pickups, electric cars, solar energy, alternative fuels, more big butts on bicycles, less traffic congestion; I'm all for it. Let's drop our consumption by half and let OPEC drink their devalued crude.
  
• Synology - A NAS will soon be as ubiquitous on a home network as the router is today. The clever, feature-filled offerings from Synology are the best of the breed. I'll have a DS508 please!
  
• Subaru - Totally agree with Craig here. I've been
  in Imprezas now going on six years and I still feel like I'm cheating when I share the road with normal cars. Scoobys are fabulous.
  
• Ken Follett's Historical Novels - "The Pillars of the Earth" and "World Without End" are two of my favorite books of all time and I just took them in this Spring. I listened to both on my iPod (over 40 hours each) after downloading them from Audible and they made a month of 1000 mile weekly commutes totally enjoyable. Masterful stuff.
  
• CrossFit - I was in good shape 20 years ago and at 44 I can wipe the floor with my 24 year old self (if that was possible). I've been CrossFitting for almost a year now and some of the things I can do now would have seemed outlandish back then.

NOT

• General Motors - If you Google dinosaur, out of touch, lethargic, and unimaginative you should pull up GM's home page. I used to be a fan, but they have been disappointing me for 25 years now and don't seem to be planning any big changes. The sooner they finish themselves off, the better off we'll be.
  
• Labor Unions - Working in the industrial world I cross paths with unions
  of all sorts way more than I would like. I completely understand why our manufacturing sector is fleeing to other countries. I have never seen such a lazy, selfish, destructive, regressive bunch of people in my life. They can't all be like that, but the ones I've met surely are.
  
• Sheeple-Filled Corporate IT Departments - My 26,000 strong corporation is going to switch to Vista because they don't want to be left with no anti-virus support for their XP platform. Goodbye nice warm frying pan and hello fire.
  
• Cable/Satellite TV - I'm SO tired of paying $80 a month for a bunch of
  garbage that I would never watch even if I had the time. It won't be long until I cut that cord and start rolling my own TV. If I could just decide which way I want to do it!
  
• Global Markets - I realize that even the lowliest trader in/on most investment banks/trading floors/commodities exchanges is smarter than I am, but I would really love to see them use those brains rather than run with every emotion that riffles through the world markets. Do investors even pay attention to P/E ratios or supply and demand or is it all about what the hot analyst is saying or the sheeple are doing?

Posted on June 5, 2008 by Craig in Cars and Computing and Health & Medicine and Home A/V and Industry and Internet and Mobile & PDAs and Movies & Books and Music & Audio and Popular Media and Science & Nature and Society / Politics and Technology and Wireless
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GearBits' First Hot/Not List

I've been remiss on posting, so I thought I'd assemble a whole mess of opinions in one place. Over the past several weeks or so, I've come to appreciate some things/companies and have come to be disappointed in others. So, here's a quick run-down:

HOT

• Shutterfly - always gets me great-looking prints/books in a timely manner at low prices.
  
• Google - just keeps rolling out the innovative, useful, and well-designed web apps
  
• Subaru - they just make terrific cars...durable, high-performing, and affordable
  
• Amazon.com - with reasonably good, if not great, prices, excellent customer service, and a stellar website, what's not to like?
  
• Subnotes - The sudden rash of low-power, low-weight, cheap laptops coming out (which I predicted would happen back at the beginning of the year) is a joy to behold...portable computing for everyone!
  
• NPR - Always informative, enjoyable, and worth supporting.
  
• Logitech Cordless Presenter - Have had it for two years now, am still on the first set of AAA batteries, it has taken tons of abuse, and it still works perfectly. Amazing!
  
• Private Electric Car Companies - It's as if we're on the cusp of another time like the 1920's, when every town seemed to have a local car manufacturer, except now they're all electric, hybrid, or alterna-fuel vehicles (a very good thing).

NOT

• Archos - if my 605 Wi-Fi completely hangs on me one more time, I swear I'm going to chuck it off an overpass (I'll post more about this later)
  
• Palm - if my Treo 700p resets on me one more time, I swear I'm going to chuck...aw, who am I kidding? It'll probably reset before I finish this post. C'mon Android...fill this void in my gadget-hoarding soul, will you?
  
• Megalomaniacal Corporate IT Departments - I hope the day comes soon when we can definitively show that the TCO actually improves when you let corporate tech users select their own personal devices.
  
• Flash memory format proliferation - I mean, seriously, do we really need SD, MiniSD, and MicroSD? It's getting as bad as the dang Memory Stick (and that's saying something).
  
• Download-only music stores - I may be in the minority, but I just don't like the DRM associated with most online music stores. And even without the DRM, the cost seems too much if I'm not getting permanent physical media, liner notes/art, etc. Call me old school if you like...go ahead, it only hurts a little.
  
• Intel's Marketing department - Seriously, guys, could you make keeping track of your product lines any more difficult and confusing?
  
• Getting older - I am no longer the kid I still think of myself as being.
  

So what are your Hot and Not?

Posted on June 4, 2008 by Craig in Cars and Computing and Home A/V and Industry and Internet and Mobile & PDAs and Phones and Popular Media and Technology and Wireless
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Some Twitter Resources

• Twitter: Why It's So Great And How To Effectively Use It (some general guidelines and useful tips)

• Whither Twitter? (a BusinessWeek slideshow on the history (and future?) of Twitter)

• Why Twitter Matters by Steve Baker (based on a bunch of tweets documented in #bwstory)

• Wikipedia entry

• CrowdStatus (organize your Twitter followers into crowds/groups for easier monitoring)

Posted on May 18, 2008 by Craig in Internet
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Segways: Gas Crunch Solution for Fat Cops?

It's hard being a visionary; nobody knows you're right until well after you did, and by then it may be too late.

Take Dean Kamen, for example. Inventor of over 27.3 million different gizmos, his much-maligned Segway was supposed to redefine how we think of cities.

It didn't. Not even close.

Now, more than seven years after its debut, they're still quite rare.

Well, they're going to be a little less rare, at least in one Ohio town. Hamilton has bought several Segways for its police force to patrol the streets in...er, on...whichever.

My question is this: if Hamilton wanted to buy something for its officers to use that reduced energy costs, why not just buy them bicycles? Five grand will get you a really nice mountain bike. Or three.

Posted on May 14, 2008 by Craig in Cars and Society / Politics and Technology
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