Bluetooth Motorcycle Helmets

Dainese and BMW have been offering these in Europe for some time. The concept makes sense. not only can they be used with phones but between riders (on the same bike....it's bluetooth not 802.xx!) I can't read Italian (or German for that matter) but the BMW model uses a DSP unit to combat noise at high speeds.

2006 Porsche Cayman S

Rumor has it the car will appear in dealerships in the 3rd week of August. The car is positioned between the Boxster and the 911. (Basically it is just the coupe version of the Boxster)

Issues with our iPod Shuffle

At this time my wife took her shuffle "on the road" for the first time. A journey to New York city (about an 80 minute train ride). She loaded up another 4 CDs before leaving. She now has about 140 songs on the shuffle. She was excited to use it and still marveled at home small/light the device is. However, after an hour into the ride the unit just stopped. At first she thought it was a gap before the next song would start to play. She hit the play/pause button....nothing. She pressed the Battery Indicator light....nothing. She turned it off and then pressed the battery indicator light....nothing. Then she turned to me and said "This stupid thing isn't working." I looked at it turned it on and it began to play again (but not at the same point the unit stopped). It worked for another 20 minutes and stopped again. She was disgusted and decided to take a nap...thinking the battery died (even though she charged it before leaving and the indicator light was at maximum)

Next Day (after charging it overnight) she began using it again. Within 45 minutes the unit stopped working. Same symptoms as before. Now the kicker here for me is I was told by her "This is my device and I don't want you messing with it. I'll never learn how to use it if you do everything." So now when asked "Why isn't this working. I think it is defective" I had to say "What does the manual say about troubleshooting?" The response of "I don't know. I don't have time for this" was to be expected. I can't blame her...the device is supposed to be pretty simple to use. So later that night I "broke the law" and acquired her manual to the device to read the troubleshooting section. Sure enough there was a catch all listed that instructed you how to reset the device (turn off for 5 seconds and then turn on) and "If that doesn’t work, you may need to restore iPod shuffle software." Great...just great. I then went to Apple's support forums and luckily(?!) found others having the same problem. Most people said the 5 second power off seemed to do the trick but others stated that it didn't fix it. (Now while I was online I was listening to the shuffle hoping that I could re-create the issue my wife had so I could put an SOS out there....needless to say the unit behaved fine for the entire time I was using it.)

I thought it would be silly to restore the shuffle from the software that shipped with it since my wife did that not to long ago. Talk about the alignments of the planets the following update is announced by Apple.

iPod Updater 2005-02-22, which includes updated versions of the software for use with various iPod models. According to the release notes, the update includes new software for the iPod mini (v1.3), iPod with Dock Connector (v2.3), iPod shuffle (v1.1), and iPod with Touch Wheel or Scroll Wheel (v1.5).

The iPod shuffle software update adds support for the iPod shuffle Battery Pack and offers "increased software stability."

So I downloaded the update (after telling my wife what I found out and what I wanted to try) and applied it. (to her shuffle and my 20GB 3rd Generation iPod). I'm hoping this addresses her problem. If not, I think I'll buy her an iPod mini since they just dropped the price of the 4GB model to $199 (versus the $149 shuffle). For the additional $50 one would get 4 times the capacity, a display and choice of color.

Microsoft Research: MSR-TR-2004-71 Strider GhostBuster:

File hiding is an advanced stealth technique that is becoming popular among system monitoring software such as RootKits, Trojans, and keyloggers.

Another article I read mentioned how you could use Windows PE to create a Bootable CD image of Windows XP to compare against your existing installation to assist in discovering if any rootkits where installed on your system.

X-BOX Power Cord Recall

Better safe than sorry....

States Mull Taxing Drivers By Mile

At first I thought this was a hoax. (Like years back when the rumor of the USPS stating that would begin charging for sending/receive e-mails) At closer inspection is does look like something that is actually being worked on. This is even more intrusive then the potential of using EZ-PASS/FAST-PASS to issue speeding tickets. (by calculating the speed a motorist averaged between toll plazas. ) There are so many "What about..." questions in my head. Infrastructure wise: equipping all cars and gas stations with compatible equipment. Logistics: How would you calculate road usage with interstate travel in non-participating states? (Out of state commuters, tourist, Rental cars, Delivery services (FedEx, UPS etc.) Conceptually (revenue wise) it might be seen as something similar that is done in London today. Charging motorists a commuter fee to limit the amount of traffic in the city center. The London situation appears to be more focused on reducing traffic than as a way to make revenue. Maybe CA would focus this just on particular areas. Even so, I hate the idea. Let's find a way to better use the money we have rather than just through more money at the problem. The article ends with a comment in how imposing this tax sends the wrong environmental message. "Everybody, we thank you for purchasing more fuel efficient vehicles and reducing the amount of emissions into our atmosphere but because you are using less fuel (i.e. lowering our revenue from gasoline tax) we will have to charge you by the mile regardless of what vehicle you drive." This might force more people to use public transportation which I bet would end up becoming more exspesnsive since fewer people would be driving.

Napster TO GO - How to "break" DRM posted.

It was only a matter of time before stuff like this would be posted.

Napster's Response

Another site's rebuttal that the method described is not just copying audio from the soundcard. And so the DRM game of cat & mouse(or my case Squirrel and Bird Feeder) continues.

House-keeping Notice - New Links

I modified my BLOG template to include a LINKS section. They deal with (surprise) automobiles. Even if you're not a car buff the link to VW's Transparent Factory is pretty interesting. Which might explain why the Phaeton is so expensive. Speaking of Phaeton surprises (sarcastically said) it is rumored that VW will drop the Phaeton from the US market soon. They claim sales haven't been good at all. Really, let me see you charge about $65,000 for a base V8 and about $100,000 for a W12 model and are surprised that people don't want to spend that money on a VW? What kind of US market research did you do? Now I must admit I thought VW was totally crazy with the Phaeton but the more I read about the car (and seeing them in person) it is a shame the car isn't doing well. It really is a very nice car it is just missing the prestige associated with other manufacture's. You just need a strong ego to buy one of these. The Passat W8 ($40,000) didn't do to well here either (hence it only latest one model year). However, the Touareg is doing quite well (even the $58,000 V10 diesel). Well enough that VW will introduce a long wheelbase model to provide US customers a 3rd row seating option that Americans seem to want in their SUVs.

Microsoft's Security Chief Says Windows Safer Than Linux

Wow. Why would you want to egg on more people with this topic? Wouldn't you wait until the sting of the security bulletins released on Tuesday had a chance to diminish? Now I think things have improved at MS in this regard but I would hardly say they're are safer than anything else out there. I thought it was rather odd that the focus was on the number of patches issued and not the severity of the vulnerabilities. Maybe I didn't read the article close enough...

Who owns BLOG content?

Some highlights below but does make you think. The question of whether RSS readers vilotate copyright is also mentioned since they do format content differently than the author's intended format.

The issue of who owns the copyrights to Weblogs, in particular, seems to
have caught some people off guard. Mark Potts, chief technology officer for
Hewlett-Packard's management software business, says that he would be surprised
if his Weblog, which is hosted on HP's Web site, was copyrighted by his employer.
"That's an interesting question," he says.
But, after checking the company's policy, an HP spokeswoman discovered that the rights to Potts' content belong to the company and not the CTO. "HP owns the copyright for anything written by an HP employee published on an HP Web site, including blog entries," the spokeswoman says via E-mail.

The terms of use for Microsoft's MSN Spaces service claims "all contents of
the MSN Web Sites" are copyrighted by Microsoft or its suppliers and that users
grant Microsoft permission to copy, distribute, edit, and sublicense their
postings. Does that mean MSN bloggers relinquish some of their own copyrights?
Despite multiple requests for clarification, Microsoft has been unable to
provide any.

Napster vs iTunes

Sorry if my recent postings have just been linking to someone else's content. However, why reinvent the wheel. In light of Napster Superbowl commercial...I knew Napster was greatly exaggerating the point as to why one should rent their music but this posting summed it up well.

WinFS Data Model

This posting is just about a year old. I wonder how relevant it is?

Microsoft Security Bulletin Summary for February, 2005

It's that time of month again. I'll be attending the briefing tomorrow and then get to decipher what "critical" updates are critical for us. I"m almost at the point where it would be easier for me to tell our IT folks "Apply all the critical updates. I don't have time to read every one of these"

iLife '05 - Worth the upgrade?

So if you already have iLife '04 should you upgrade to the latest version? SHORT ANSWER(S): Yes (if you want a speed boost in iMovie and need to record up to 8 separate audio tracks in Garage Band) or No (if you find the performance in iLife '04 OK).

LONG ANSWER: First to bore you with my background. I've been using iPhoto, iMovie on my beige G3 PowerPC Macintosh and found the applications decent "freebies". I could never run iDVD on that machine and never paid for updates to these applications. My machine (even though I upgraded the CPU from a G3 to a G4) really wasn't meant to be used with the newer releases. I made due with the old mac and the ThinkPads issued to me at work (eventually broke down and bought a 1.5Ghz Athlon Compaq Presario).

Then my wife's PowerBook came in last year (Feb '04) iLife wasn't out....until a week after the machine arrived. So I had to pay the $19.95 to upgrade to iLife even though if I waited a week all new macs would have this included. I thought the price (of the upgrade) would justify Garage Band. (Which to me was the only NEW app included in iLife....the others just minor fixes) Well the PowerBook didn't have the storage space I needed to do the home movie editing that I needed. I didn't want to spend money on upgrading my PC when I could go out and buy a new Mac (dual 2.5Ghz G5, 2GB RAM, 2x250GB hard drives, 2 external Maxtor OneTouch 300GB Firewire/USB 2 drives, 20" Apple Cinema display).

So the new G5 arrived with iLife '04 and I was a bit disappointed in how iMovie performed on it. Granted much quicker than my old Beige G3 but not that much faster than my wife's PowerBook. I thought the G5 CPUs, extra gig of memory, second processor and faster drives would give me a bit more improvement. So I guess I got caught up with all the MacWorld frenzy and paid ($79) for the new release of iLife.

I must say that iMovie HD (iLife '05) is noticeably quicker when rendering transitions. iDVD is also quicker during video rendering before "burning" to disc. So, the upgrade was worth it to me since I've been doing a lot of movie processing lately. I began using Garage Band 2 and wonder why I bought Apple's Soundtrack utility (which appears to be Garage Band on steroids...more than I need now). So my creative fix is being craved for now.

BTW: I also purchased the upgrade to Final Cut Express HD even though I don't have a HD camcorder (My Canon can shoot in 16:9 aspect but that is the closest thing I have) I started using Final Cut Express but was overwhelmed with the interface and went back to iMovie just to create something. I'm supposed to receive the upgrade by Feb 14th (my 1GB iPod shuffle should come at the end of this week. Sorry Jack - I actually went out and bought one of these. Something small and easy to use for my wife) Once I get the HD version I'll begin to learn how to use that. Final Cut allows for much more accuracy with editing controls. Reminds me of Adobe Premiere on my PC. This post went on way to long....sorry. (You would think I would edit this thing but no....I just keep on typing!)

Google does maps

Yet another online mapping and directions website. Mapquest still doesn't have my road listed while both Yahoo and Google do. The Google offering has the moving graphical feedback that map24 offers.

2006 Lexus GS 300/430

Take a look at this article and see the Clever hidden compartment I love details like this..

2006 Lexus RX400h Review

The latest issue of Car & Driver and Road & Track have articles as well but this Canadian "Newspaper" article had more real world driving impressions. I can't wait for ours to come in...i do hope it is by November of this year.

Yahoo's News Story, Edmund's First drive with video

2006 BMW 7-Series Cosmetic Makeover!

About time!

Front , Rear , Rear 3Qtr and Side

The car always performed well but visually this platform really had to grow on you OR if you squinted at it....while wearing sunglasses....at night.

2005 Detroit Auto Show

So here are a few highlights from the show. Everyone of these will make into production (some sooner than later):

Audi allroad concept - Check out the article link for their use Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) technology. In addition to Audi Road Vision (Audi road vision combines laser and infra-red spectroscopy to scan the road in front of the vehicle.) - cool


GM Sequel-Hydrogen fuel-Cell (funky looking)

But look what it is riding on....Awesome! No longer are you confined by convential vehicle design. With the Engine compartment and drivetrain utilizing little space you can build almost anything on top of this.


Merceds-Benz CLS 55 AMG - Video of CLS500


Ferrari Superamerica

Glass convertible top


Jaguar Advanced Light Weight Coupe


Chrysler Firepower


Ford Shelby GR-1


Lexus LF-A


Saturn Sky Roadster

Readers Pick Apple in 2004

After a two-year hiatus Apple has returned to win the 2004 Readers’ Choice Awards for the brand with the most global impact—a title held by Google since 2002.

Microsoft's Improved MSN Search Site

A letter from Bill Gates asks you to try out their new search site. It just so happens that my Cable company's user portal page is associated with MSN. I haven't been a big fan of their search engine before. (google and yahoo are fine by me) Will I stop using my "tried and true" for theirs?...I doubt it.

Wireless Battery Charger?

They say coming in 2005....the little thing I noticed is that the device must support the SplashModule in order to recharge devices. Don't know how much cost that will add to the product Or how many vendors will support the SplashModule. Still, a neat idea.

digg this...

OK, I really thought that anyone that could stumble across this BLOG would be the kind of person that would already know about the digg site. It's been out many months now (almost an enternity in the Internet world!) but I still see other sites touting this "new site". So, if you haven't looked at take a gander..