Saturday, October 11, 2003

Russians are Cranking it!

Would you be surprised to know that Russia is producing some 8.3 million barrels of oil per day, even outdoing the Saudis? Apparently with the help of US companies like Schlumberger, Halliburton,and Baker Hughes, they've revived a lot of old wells and have revived old fields that were thought to have been drying up. Of course, they are outdoing the Saudis, cause the Saudis choose not to produce that much oil, but still an impressive accomplishment

Also, how many of you knew that that US imported more oil from Canada than anyone else? Canada, Saudia Arabia, Mexico, and Venezuela in that order. Bet not 1 in 100 folks would have guessed Canada.

On a side note hope you enjoy the time and date while reading this blog. :) (Assuming you are using Internet Explorer as your browser - you won't see special effects if you're using Mozilla)
 

Friday, October 10, 2003

Germans Criticize Leaders, Admire 'Arnold Effect'

Yahoo! News - Germans Criticize Leaders, Admire 'Arnold Effect': "The straight-talking Hollywood action star's election win in California has had an electrifying impact on Germany, leading to calls Friday for top politicians to voice clear ideas in simple language or be swept away at the polls. "

Electrische Probleme in Kalifornia? hmmmmph.... Keep it simple, just hav de Hubble scope fokus die big sun rays down on die Kalifornia! What iz vrong mit you folks? Why you make eveyding so kompliziert?
. 

Thursday, October 09, 2003

A Handy Email Tip

A Handy Email Tip

I picked up this tip from PCWorld (although I had seen it elsewhere before) .

If you email someone frequently, it would be nice to have a shortcut to click on, which would pop up a new mail message with their name in the To: field. So here's how to do it.

Right-Click your desktop (hopefully you know what the desktop is - that's that screen you normally see when first starting up your computer - the one with all the icons on it for different programs). After you right-click, select New-Shortcut. Then type mailto:your-buddy@his ISP.com in the Command line (Win98 and ME) or location field in XP. Enter your pal's email address after "mailto:". Click Next,give the Shortcut a name (like Billy Bob's email), and click on Finish. This will put a shortcut icon on your desktop. But we want to put it into the Quick Launch bar which is right next to your Start button on the bottom left of your desktop, cause that way you don't have be hunting around on your desktop for it. To do that, just click on the Shortcut on the desktop and while holding the left button of your mouse down, drag it into the Quick Launch bar. That's all there is to it.

Now the next time you want to send an email to that person, just click on the icon in the Quick Launch bar and up will pop your email form with their name already in it.

This is a handy tip if you frequently email someone.
 

UHDTV?

 Not sure where I saw this mentioned the other day, but apparently some Japanese folks have invented UHDTV, which has supposedly 16x the resolution of HDTV and is so sharp and clear, the eye can't tell it from the real thing. I can't wait till they figure out how to make the people appear in 3D in your living room and walk around - imagine yourself sitting on the recliner in the middle of a gunfight!

I WANT MY UHDTV!

Wednesday, October 08, 2003

New Upgrade for Roboform

 RoboForm: Free Password Manager, Form Filler, Password Generator: Fill Forms, Save Passwords, AutoFill, AutoLogin, AutoSave

Roboform has an upgrade to version 5.5. This one pops up much faster,is more consistent. If you don't surf the Net a lot, then you could get the freebie version which allows you to save 30 passwords, otherwise, the $30 version is the way to go, which allows unlimited passwords. I can't imagine working on the Net without this thing.

Yahoo! News - Davis Out, Schwarzenegger Wins in Calif.

 Yahoo! News - Davis Out, Schwarzenegger Wins in Calif.: "'We have tough choices ahead,' Schwarzenegger said in declaring victory. 'The first choice that we must make is the one that will determine our success. Shall we rebuild our state together or shall we fight amongst ourselves, create even deeper divisions and fail the people of California? Well, let me tell you something — the answer is clear. For the people to win, politics as usual must lose.' "

Well all I have to say is that it sure will be interesting. Can politics as usual lose? That would be a first. But it will be great to see someone who is not an old time politician bring some fresh insights (assuming he has some) to the game.

And for the Republicans who are crowing over this victory? Well perhaps they should heed the warning of Leon Panetta -

"But the recall was more than a message to Davis, said former Clinton White House chief of staff Leon Panetta, who called it a warning shot to all officeholders.

"It's a revolt of people who are increasingly angry at the crises that face them, and at the failure of leadership," Panetta said. "If I were a Republican, I wouldn't get too cocky about what happened."


Tuesday, October 07, 2003

Cars,Computers and Sports

 
Finally got my rumble fixed in my '92 Toyota Camry. New sway bar bushings did the trick. Only put up with that for 2 years! Feels like a new car!

If you're looking for a good book on Photoshop Elements 2, then you might be interested in this one. These Hands-on-Training books are quite good.

Am testing out a new beta of a Spam program called iHateSpam that incorporates into Outlook Express and Outlook. Sends all spam into the Delete Folder in OE. Initial testing reveals that it is quite accurate. Will let you know how it does over the next few weeks. I've liked Mailwasher, but find it cumbersome with having to delete and check things in it and then go to OE to download. This is much faster and seems more accurate initially.

Cubbies continue their quest this evening against the Florida Marlins. Has been great baseball so far with a great game last night as well with Boston squeaking one out over the Oakland A's to make it into the playoffs against the NY Yankees. Interestingly the last time the Cubbies were in a World series (1918), the Red Sox beat them with Babe Ruth getting 2 of the wins as a pitcher. (Did you recall that the Babe was initially a pitcher?).