Car Idling Is Bad
The Canadian Office of Energy Efficiency has suggested that if you’re going to idle in your car for more than 10 seconds, you should turn your car off to save, not only gas, your money, but also the environment.
I was first exposed to this phenomenon while visiting India in 2000. Traffic lights there, like anywhere else, consume some 2+ minutes of your life and in response to the atrocious air quality in most cities, the local governments had instructed motorists to shut down their vehicles. Read the rest of this entry »
XBOX 360 Elite
After quite a lot of speculation and rumor mongering, the XBOX 360 Elite has been announced by Microsoft.
The basic summary of changes include a console in black, a HDMI port, 120 GB hard drive, but still no official word on the small 65nm processor which supposedly runs cooler. The only “upgrade” here that I would even remotely consider is replacing my stock 20 GB hard drive with the larger 120 GB variety.
I currently use the component cables to connect my X360 to my TV and optical audio cables to get the games surround sound. With an HDMI option I would just need to run a single cable to get everything. However, since I already have 2 HDMI devices plugged into my receiver I would need to invest in some sort of an HDMI switch to get this 3rd device going. In my book, that’s just not worth the extra money, not to mention that the XBOX 360 Elite already costs about $479 to start with.
Perusing a few of the gaming forums seem so to indicate that I’m actually in the minority of existing X360 owners who has no intentions to trade in their existing X360 at a loss and fork over lots more money to get the Elite version. Many of these people also don’t have a TV that have HDMI inputs, so this must be the true definition of a fanboy.
Cheers
Ubuntu Edgy Eft
I recently decided to upgrade my computer to be somewhat relevant to todays CPU speeds and, more importantly, storage space. So, this past weekend I sat down to put the new PC together and having done so decided to install both Linux and Windows XP on there. I chose the Ubuntu distribution, as I had used the older Ubuntu Breezy and had liked it.
I got the newest Ubuntu Edgy Eft installer CD and booted into it and was surprised to see that I got the full GNOME window with a usable Linux as opposed to the usual install screen. This is, by far, the smartest thing any Linux distribution can do. Edgy Eft is actually a Live Linux CD that allows you explore what Linux has to offer before choosing to install it. All my peripherals were detected and optimized. So, I could watch videos, listen to music, browse the web and check my mail; all without having actually installed Linux.
Needless to say, I installed Ubuntu and couldn’t be happier. My hats off to an absolutely awesome distribution and installation method!
Cheers
Those Darn Chords
It took the birth of my daughter to get a little introspective about my life and the accomplishments in them. I look at her, barely in her third week of life and imagine all that she will learn, accomplish and teach. I, then look at myself approaching 30 and reminisce about the things that I just didn’t get done.
Prime amongst a growing list of things that I haven’t and probably will never get done is being able to play the guitar. Music, in general, has always been a big part of my life. I enjoy listening to it. Singing, albeit badly sometimes, to it and generally being surrounded by it. What better way, I thought, for me to get more involved in music than to play an instrument myself.
Our baby is here
The journey that started around July of last year finally came to an end for us on Sunday 03/04/2007. Our daughter, Riana, was born at 2:20 PM. At birth she was 20″ long and weighed a slight 5lb 15oz. Even though she came almost 3 weeks in advance of her due date, she is very healthy and after a couple days stay at the hospital we returned home with her.
Having her in the house has been an adjustment for all of us, but it’s one that we all welcome and are enjoying. As first-time parents we have experienced help around us to make sure that we can handle our baby.
