Technology

Glossy laptop screens
Has anybody bought one of those new Tru-Brite screen laptops? I'd be curious to see what you think of the glare in a home setting. I was at BestBuys the other day, checking out the new Toshiba Qosmio and I must say the screen was fabulous but lots of reflecting lights in it from the store lights. A number of laptop makers are now including these type screens, so I'd be interested in your comments, if you have one.

Gigs for your Camera
Feeling brave? Check out this page. You can buy a Rio Carbon 5 Gig music player and strip it to harvest the microdrive lurking inside and then use that in your high end digital camera. The Rio goes for $199 so quite the deal, if you're up to the challenge.

1 Gig SD Drive for your Camera/Palm Pilot/Pocket PC
These things just keep getting cheaper. Check out Amazon's site for a 1 Gig Sandisk SD card for $59 after rebate. With this baby, and your palm pilot, Ipod, or Pocket PC, you can store a whole lotta books from Audible.com You could go on a 3 month vacation and never run out of books! :)

1 Gig Jump Drive
Need one of those handy little keychain USB drives to carry around, so that you always have the files you need? Dell has a Lexar 1 Gig JumpDrive for $41 after rebates, with free shipping. That's a steal for sure. That's like carrying around over 700 floppies on your keychain! :)

DVD Player bargain
Here's a DVD player that is dirt cheap and in hot demand because it will play anything! $62 shipped free! Check out the user comments. If you're still playing around with VHS tapes, now's the time to climb on board!

Updates
Firefox has now been upgraded from 1.0PR (pre-release) to the official 1.0 version . Get the best browser on the Net.

Zone Alarm (Free version) is now up to Version 5.5.062.000 . Get the best firewall there is. If you're operating without a firewall, you're an Idiot. :)

Losing Common Sense
ABC affiliates pulling 'Private Ryan' This is hard to believe. I called my brother out in Arizona to tell him it was on, figuring that he probably hadn't seen it- well, he isn't going to see it tonight either - preempted. The reasons are ludicrous. Fortunately, Virginia doesn't appear to be that ass backwards. This is the best war film you will see and certainly brings home the horror and sacrifice of war, something that the Public needs to be more aware of, in these times of Mr. Trigger Happy.

Financials

Indexes YTD

Dow               -.65%
Nasdaq         +1.56%
S&P 500        +6.04%

Web Site of the Day
AbeBooks.com Looking for a special used book that may be out of print? Well, you've come to the right place. I was looking up old copies of the Baseball Joe series written around 1912 and voila - they're here! Also was looking for a kids book written in 1940 called Sunstar and Pepper,Scouting with Jeb Stuart - yep, found about 7 copies of it.

Bush eyes Gay Marriage Ban

Well, it didn't take long for Bush to get this one in his sights . After seeing Dr. James Dobson on ABC's "This Week" this morning, I'm hardly surprised. Gotta keep your base happy. Man, it's depressing to see the country moving so far to the Right. Don't people realize there are more important issues than depriving 2 people of their chance for a happy life? Over a piece of paper? Come on folks - get your heads out of your ... and stop imposing your values on the rest of us.

Two Views - which do you like?
Maureen Dowd writes in the Times :
" Even as a child, I could feel the rush of J.F.K.'s presidency racing forward, opening up a thrilling world of possibilities and modernity. We were going to the moon. We were confronting racial intolerance. We were paying any price and bearing any burden for freedom. We were respecting faith but keeping it out of politics. Our president was inspiring much of the world. Our first lady was setting the pace in style and culture.

W.'s presidency rushes backward, stifling possibilities, stirring intolerance, confusing church with state, blowing off the world, replacing science with religion, and facts with faith. We're entering another dark age, more creationist than cutting edge, more premodern than postmodern. Instead of leading America to an exciting new reality, the Bushies cocoon in a scary, paranoid, regressive reality. Their new health care plan will probably be a return to leeches."

Was the Vote Hacked? A friend sent me this . Does make one wonder. I've generally found exit polls to be pretty accurate so wondered myself how they could be so wrong. This article will send a bit of chill up the ol' spine. Unfortunately, unless they can get an actual person to come forward and admit they have hacked these machines, Bush and gang will merrily go on their way.

Education
Saw an interesting excerpt on the news the other night about teaching investing to young kids in the schools. I couldn't agree more. By the time a kid leaves high school, he should know the market inside out. Too many people sit on the sideline and fail to make enough money to live on in retirement, because they are scared of something they know nothing about. I wish I had learned much more about it when I was in school and had been encouraged at the age of 21 to start putting money into retirement funds. I would be long retired by now. If you're in your 20's and don't want to work till you're 80, start learning now and start investing. But DIVERSIFY. I can only imagine what will happen if Bush privatizes SS and people who know nothing about investing, are asked to make investment decisions. Hopefully, if something like that comes to pass, there are some sort of safeguards in place or some sort of mandatory diversification plans put into place. Otherwise someone could be a tad bit unhappy when , after investing for 40 years in some high flying tech fund, suddenly the market dives in technology and they are wiped out. We should have all learned a lesson back in March of 2000, but memories are short. If you want to take some free courses in the markets, investing, etc., I stumbled across a great site at Morningstar. Check it out here . Simple straightforward lessons that everybody should avail themselves of.

Money
Have you noticed lately how much the dollar is declining? Used to be you got more than 1 Euro for the buck. Now you only get .77 Euros for the buck - not so sweet if you're traveling to Europe. Coming this way ? Well that should put a smile on Europeans faces - 1 Euro buys you $1.29 in US money.

B12 Panties?
Figured that catchy title would wake you up. :)

"Too lazy to take your multivitamin in the morning? No worries, just put on a V-Up shirt. Fuji Spinning Co. have introduced wearable vitamin clothing that allow the wearer’s skin to absorb vitamins through skin over time. The clothing lasts an estimated 30 washes, so don’t sweat your lemon citrus shirt getting too stinky on you. Current available shirts are a Vitamin C and E model, and they plan vitamin-enriched underwear soon. Mmmm…B12 panties."