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I always love a good joke at Microsoft’s expense.

If you are thinking about upgrading to Vista, here is a good tool to help make the decision.

Popularity: 7%

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With Christmas just over and tax time coming up many people are working on their finances.

With that in mind I thought I would share my favorite financial calculator site.

Hugh’s Mortgage and Financial Calculators is a website produced by Hugh Chou that contains many javascript financial and mortgage calculators. An invaluable site when you are trying to figure out how much money to save/borrow/spend.

Popularity: 8%

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Before Jack Black hit it big as Shallow Hal, Nacho Libre or Tenacious D, he was just a kid like the rest of us.

Here’s video of Black trying to make a buck back in 1982.

Popularity: 5%

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Ever since moving into my home in 2001 I have had a problem with lightbulbs. It seems that the bulbs typically only last a few months at most. I have attempted to research the reason behind this and have come to the conclusion that it’s either because incandescent lightbulbs are worthless, or there is some type of electrical problem in my house (I’ve also read that the problem could be due to screwing the bulbs in too tight, but last time I replaced them I was careful not to overtighten).

While at my local Wal-Mart, buying bulbs I decided to conduct an experiment. I replaced six of the seven bulbs that are burnt out with Compact Flourescent bulbs. These bulbs are supposed to use less power (so I’m saving the planet), and last for five years.

I was a bit skeptical, but the new bulbs put out a pleasing light. The only caveat so far is that they take a second or two to come on, not a problem but a bit of an annoyance. Every time I flip the switch I think they’ve burnt out. I’m sure that will pass.

Now we just need to see how long they last. I’ll be sure to post if/when any of them burn out.

Popularity: 8%

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Yesterday, I received in my inbox an email from my friends over at the Libertarian Party discussing the Libertarian response to President Bush’s State of the Union speech.

I am not (yet) a member of the Libertarian party, and cannot endorse their comments without reservation, but I do think the piece made some interesting points, specifically:

…the President’s health care proposal to replace an unlimited employer health care expense deduction with standard deductions for individuals, while not perfect, is a large step in the badly needed direction of breaking the link between employment and health insurance in this nation. It would stop federal tax discrimination against people who are not covered by employer-provided insurance.

I think every self employed person I know would agree with this.

The President touched on another of his unpopular and failing big government solutions: No Child Left Behind. Not so very long ago, the Republican Platform called for the elimination of the federal Department of Education. Today, Republicans and Democrats compete over which big government programs and mandates can be forced on state and local governments. No Child Left Behind should not be reauthorized.

There is nearly universal agreement that the No Child Left Behind program is an underfunded, misguided intrusion by the Federal government on our local schools. It’s mind boggling to me that Bush even brought it up in his speech.

and finally

…the President is attempting to force new fuel economy standards on automobile manufacturers. Additionally, he is tampering with the free market in order to reach the probably unachievable goal of “energy independence.” If we want the lowest possible energy prices and alternative energy sources to develop, we need to get government out of the energy business and let the free market work.

This concept here is one of my ultimate pet peeves. The US government is subsidising the oil industry while forcing better mileage standards. They are spending money on both ends of the problem when a free market would likely balance everything out.

I encourage you to read the whole response. You may not agree, but it definitely makes you think…

Popularity: 7%

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Looks like ABC has finally seen the light and will post the remaining Daybreak episods on their website.

ABC president Steve McPherson revealed that fans of the serialized drama — which was pulled from the air after five weeks — may find some closure as the remaining episodes will be placed on the company’s website by February’s end.

Popularity: 7%

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Linux is an amazing server operating system. A remote user can control nearly any aspect of the computer.

The company where I work has servers hosted at a location in south Denver, about 70 miles away. I can do almost all of our maintenance from our, the only difficult thing is updating a kernel.

Fortunately Lilo has a neat little trick for completing a kernel update.

The ‘lilo -R’ command sets a one time default before you shutdown. This allows remote testing where you don’t have access to the console at boot.

Just specify the kernel label on the command line

lilo -R

If the kernel fails it can be a remote support person can hit the button and the previous default kernel loads on the next boot.

Popularity: 6%

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In what may be the most exciting AFC championship game in history the Indianapolis Colts overcame an 18 point first half deficit to defeat the vaunted New England Patriots and secured a place in the Super Bowl.

Both teams fought valiantly, but ultimately the Colts desire to win prevailed.

The poetic moment of the game is when Tom Brady, often refered to as the ‘Greatest Quarterback Ever’ threw a pass that was intercepted by Colts’ Marlin Jackson - effectively ending the game.

My congratulations go out to Tony Dungy and the whole Colts organization! I, for one, am looking forward to a great Super Bowl game against Brian Urlacher and the Chicago Bears.

Popularity: 8%

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We are just two days away from Sunday’s show down between two of the best football teams of the modern era. The New England Patriots with their boring, mediocre, ‘we don’t need good players when we can just bore the other team to death’ style vs. the dynamic, exciting, record setting, passionate Indianapolis Colts.

For me, Sunday’s game symbolizes the good and the bad in the NFL today.

Coach Belichick, while brilliant, has a coaching style tailor-made for the modern NFL. The New England Patriots are a cold, rutheless, crushing football machine that is designed to win games the same way every time. Every position and every person is replacable. Tom Brady get’s billing as one of the greatest quarterbacks in history, when in reality he is just another cog that keeps the Belichick machine running.

The Indianapolis Colts are diametrically opposed to the New England Patriots. If the Patriots are a machine, the Colts are a living breathing entity. They play with passion, heart and honor. Peyton Manning is the quintessential quarterback, a true field general and leader of men in the tradition of men like Unitas and Elway. The coach, Tony Dungy, is a soft spoken defensive genius - the first coach in history to beat all 32 NFL teams. The leadership of these two men brings out the best in players like Marvin Harrison, Dallas Clark, Reggie Wayne, Bob Sanders, Dwight Freeney, Joseph Addai and many others - all heros in their own right.

This Sunday we will once again see this clash of old vs. new, Heros vs. Machine, Passion vs. Calculation. At the end of the day I only know one thing. Win or Lose, at the press conference Manning and Dungy will have gracious things to say about their opponent, Bellichick will be rude and Brady will walk out in his $10,000 suit and flash his million dollar smile.

My only hope is that, contrary to Lisa’s wishes, the Patriots don’t win again.

Popularity: 8%

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Students of Golden High School in Golden, Colorado ‘hacked’ into the schools parental portal system and changed their grades.

This story is sure to bring out all the evil ‘hacker’ stories, that topic has been a little slow lately. Maybe they should arrest these kids as ‘terrorists’. Doesn’t the Patriot act make hacking in to a government computer system an act of terrorism?

The real blame should be placed squarely on the shoulders of the administration. What kind of system do they have where a hacker can even change grades through a web interface? If that isn’t bad enough, they must not have had backups of the system either. Students are being asked to bring old copies of homework and tests in so teachers can re-calculate their grades.

Ridiculous and irresponsible.

Popularity: 8%

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