Another Day with Special “K”

Call me slow on the uptake but I just discovered The Universal Wishlist by Amazon.com. This genius move by the on-line “more than just books giant” is unprecedented. Think of it as Macy’s telling you to go to Gimbels. The summary is this, Amazon now provides users with a magical link you can add to your Internet Explorer favorites. That’s part one. Part two is you continue to search the Internet for gift ideas just as you normally would. When you see something you like, regardless of the provider, click the “Add to Wishlist” link and it will magically appear on your Amazon Wishlist. The brilliance is that instead of gathering a wishlist to send to friends and family and sending them updates all the time, now all you need to do is build and maintain one wishlist at everyone’s favorite digital super market, AMAZON.com!!! Me likey!!!

Last night I ventured out to Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. where I watched as the election results rolled in. For folks familiar with the rivalry, you would have thought we were watching the Redskins tromp Dallas in the Superbowl. There were probably three McCain fans in the entire bar and every time the polling places closed the air exploded with a count as if New Years were arriving time and again. They cheered and jeered for state returns and despite the deafening volume of the attendees to The Pour House the minute McCain came on-line to officially conceed the entire bar fell silent. I paused. I dropped a pin…and was subsequently hushed by the crowd around me.

I can only imagine that this is what folks have described as having felt when Kennedy was elected. The room leaked tears as Obama orated the hopelifting message, Yes We Can.  Here stood the right place at the right time; a momentous occassion in American History. For someone who’s not at all political, I’m still feeling chills as I type this very message, we the American people have elected a black President. A good man. A smart man. And one who has filled the country with hope and excitement for the future during a time when all signs point toward difficult times ahead.

In this world of constant computer upgrades two items constantly hamper progress, speed and file size. One constantly victimized by the other. How many times have you waited restlessly for a big e-mail to upload only to find that the recipient’s inbox would not a file that large? As a recipient, how many times have you received a file that was so big that it took up all the remaining space in your inbox?

YouSendIt attempts to resolve the issue of large file transport by acting as a third pary file transfer service. Let’s say you have a huge PowerPoint that you want to e-mail all your friends. Rather than send this 20MB file to everyone’s inbox and piss people off, begin by uploading your file to YouSendIt. The YouSendIt server will provide you with an easy to use link pointing directly to this file and taking up just a fraction of the space you might otherwise have used.

The trial is free. Try YouSendIt and begin to exercise your web savvy e-mail skills.

With focus round the planet now turning to Hybrid and Electric vehicles many have opted to adobt the more fuel efficient manner of transport, the motorcycle as their vehicle of choice. And while most motorcycles dwarf hybrid fuel efficiency figures, here’s a bike sure to make you think twice about paying for the petroleum at the pump, it’s the Zapino Electric Scooter. Targeted at the inner city Vespa crowd, this 100% electric bike comes in a variety of colors and sells for a tasty $3495.

If you’re one whose looking for something a little more aggressive why not check out the Zero X ($7450). This all electric off-road bike brags a cost of one cent per mile in recharging and despite its meager 23 horse engine, the bike’s light frame makes short work of rough hills.

If these guys can’t get you excited about low emission transports then I don’t know what will!

Like the fading of the 8-track, all good technology must see its end and so it must be with the beloved Digital Versatile Disc (DVD). While my own research on the subject has suggested that investments in replacing your current DVD collection with Blu-rays is not a worthwhile endeavor, undoubtedly there are those who will go out and do so and thus the bloodletting begins.

Today Amazon jumps the shark on DVD sales as they lowered the price on the James Bond Ultimate DVD Collection of 21 films from $289.98 to $95.99. This "Deal of the Day" represents the sort of ridiculous sales we can expect to see coming into Black Friday. With Blu-ray now in firm control of the home theater market, the 67% discount you see here will most likely arise time and again. My advice to those who plan on ditching DVDs in favor of their blue cousins is, now is the time. Short of a collector’s item, I doubt you will see higher values on your current library any time in the next 100 years.

Thank you Amazon for cutting the ribbon on the newest era of techno upgrades!

Yesterday I was hit with the travel bug once more as a deal flashed my inbox, $526 roundtrip from Washington, D.C. to Hawaii. I could scarcely believe my eyes. Did a little research and found this guy was legit beyond a bit. Price included taxes and fees on a Continental flight from DC to Newark, NJ and direct from NWK to Honolulu! Unbelievable!!!

While one has to wonder if such a deal is actually a desperate grasps at straws by floundering airline Continental, the flip side of the coin tells me that with the right travel insurance one would be protected even if Continental went under before you could take the flight.

Well I searched, I spammed the friends list for interested travel partners and nobody was ready to act so quickly. The deal called for travel during September and October 2008 and flights had to be purchased in a hurry. Sadly, thems the kind of deals you have to jump on because 24 hours later she’s a goner. And while you can still get a flight today at $726 roundtrip the sweet little $500+ deal is up and gone away. Thanks anyway TravelZoo! It’s deals like these that keep me reading your SPAM mail.

So what’s with all these airlines going under? Is this really the end of the flight travel era? Survey says, probably not. Let’s be honest, once folks get used to a certain level of convenience they tend not to want to go back to their old ways. While monies from the housing boom had increased the demand for travel and accordingly, the number of airlines in the market, one can undoubtedly argue that too many airlines can be a bad thing. With higher fuel costs, decreased travel in the wake of the housing market decline, and a flooded airline market there was something that had to give.

Intuition tells me that while the rising costs of oil will likely continue its trend, the technology exists to make planes lighter and fuels more efficient. These advents coupled with fewer airlines in the market will undoubtedly keep the jet setting lifestyle alive and well even if it is done at a price slightly above the rockbottom $99 filghts that used to take-off every day.

I believe in the adage of "where there’s a will there’s a way." When demand makes the wide-spread development of such technologies cost effective the right technology will evolve to make flight once more affordable for the general public. In the meanwhile, I run my car on Ethanol 85, I recycle my waste and I pay my taxes like a good citizen. Long live the era of innovation and progress. Just don’t forget to save the rainforest while you’re at it!

If you have followed much of my verbose drivel you may recall a post from August of last year entitled "iPod & the Vending Machine" in which I intro’d the latest craze in DVD rentals, the RedBox. Since this time last year rentals from RedBox machines have increased exponentially. Today the persistent drive to bankrupt DVD rental giant Blockbuster continues. Despite a consistent line infront of many RedBox locations an advertising campaign oriented toward providing free rentals has launched nation-wide. It starts with a FREE rental for new users but for those of you who are veterans of the automated vending revolution, you may sign-up for free codes to be text-messaged to your cell phone once a week. That’s a FREE movie rental per week every Wednesday in August and if you’re like many folks, one free movie a week is about all you care to take in.

But wait, there’s more…More FREE movies? That’s right! According to a recent broadcast on a California news report, RedBox has released so many free codes that the web site InsiderRedBox.com has arisen with the sole purpose of posting and tracking the availability of FREE DVD rental codes available for use at varying percentages of RedBox locations. Seriously though, does it work? Well I can tell you that I have been to the site, I have tried a code or two and I too have garnered a FREE night’s rental using codes found on Insider RedBox.

In line with the California press story executives at RedBox were contacted for a phone interview in which they were not only upset by the rise of Insider RedBox but instead seemed quite elated that there little vending machine business had earned so much grassroots following that a web site to its homage had been built.

So what are you waiting for? There is no obligation for "X" number of purchases, the rentals are available here no today and in this blog alone you should be able to access three FREE DVD rentals readily available in just a few clicks. Viva la revolution!

If you’ve engaged yourself in the Netflix world you have perhaps enjoyed the convenience of DVDs and Blu-Ray Discs delivered to your doorstep. You may even have explored their convenient on demand content available through the web browser’s "Instant Queue."

Effective immediately, NetFlix is offering a unique On-Demand service that almost completely negates the need for cable or satellite TV. Why pay exorbedent costs for movies and commercials you don’t care about when you can access your entire Instant Queue through Netflix Roku. The easy to connect box ties into your TV through standard video and audio connections while allowing connectivity to your home network through either wired and wireless ports.

The flat rate cost of Roku comes in at $99 and requires no additional monthly fees outside of your regular monthly fee that you are already paying. For the tech savvy in the crowd, this may appear no different than hooking up a laptop to your TVs video input and then streaming the feed from your browser. Roku however is compact and comes with its own proprietary remote control.

Users can watch films any of the 12,000+ films and television programs available from the Instant Queue as many times as they like and all at no revolving charges. Friends, if you have been looking for a way to ditch that growing cable bill, this may be your best option.

I was talking to a guy in my office the other day about Formula One Racing when he made mention of the fact that F1 was talking about going to hybrid cars. What was the point I though. I mean you’re talking about a race car, I hardly believe that the fuel saved in a Formula Racing would ever off set the weight or cost of developing the cars.

That was when he reminded me that the technology going into these top end vehicles is precisely the sort of research that bleeds down from the manufacturers. Anti-lock brakes, seatbelts, fuel-injection, all from the racing divisions of the world. This built my excitement as I realized that forcing racing organizations toward and hybrid and electric technologies is precisely the sort of drive these modern day grease monkeys need to push the envelope on eco-friendly transportation.

Shortly after this realization and rather lengthy conversation, I was reading MSN Autos when I came across this little puppy. She’s got 700 horsepower, does 0-60 MPH in under four seconds, and can go 186 miles on a 10-minute charge to the 30 batteries in the car. That’s right, she’s called Lightning and she is the world’s most advanced consumer level electric sports car. The stats are impressive enough to catch the attention of just about any sports machine enthusiast but the fact that she’s entirely electric just blows the mind.

Dear God, many thanks to the early adapters of the world who help to diffuse the enormous price tag of our latest and greatest technology. Lightning represents a bright glimmer of hope in the dimming bulb of fossil fuel dependent technologies. Here’s hoping that Lightning lives up to every claim and more so.

If you’re an avid user of the computer (most likely any of you whom might read this) chances are you are on who has copied and pasted a link to a friend in an e-mail. Lord knows I’ve done it and man can it be frustrating when that link is a million characters long. Sometimes the link jumps to another page and friends who do not receive HTML enabled e-mail have a heck of a time going to a URL…especially if they aren’t very tech savvy.

Enter TinyURL.com. Tiny URL is about as simple as they come. Let’s say you’re trying to send someone a link to a MapQuest page but the URL is super long. It takes up three lines and doesn’t link properly when you paste it.  Solution:

1. Copy the URL for the page you want the user to visit.
2. Go to TinyURL.com and paste the monster link into the first field.
3. The nice short URL comes out in the next page.
4. Copy and paste the shortened URL into your e-mail and your on your way.

Note, for more advanced users, you can even make custom URL names like http://tinyurl.com/DifficultRun. While the Internet may be filled with loads of useless crap, this is a page whose function is worth its salt. Spread the word on Tiny URL and we’ll all be happier web surfers!