Nearly 11 million households are the wealthiest 10% of all U.S. households in net worth with:

• Minimum net worth of $750,000
• Average net worth of $2.7 million
• Average income of $270,000
• Earn nearly 40% of the total income of all Americans
• Own 65% of the personal assets of all U.S. households

Richest gift shoppers rein it in a little

This could be a reasonable replacement for rsync on Windows…

Good Sync is FREE file and folder synchronization software for Windows.

This software uses an innovative synchronization algorithm to synchronize your data between desktop PCs, laptops, USB drives and more. Good Sync combines bulletproof reliability with an extremely easy-to-use interface.

Good Sync

All of a sudden a huge batch of global warming related articles popped up….

The Earth is running a slight fever from greenhouse gases, after enjoying relatively stable temperatures for 2,000 years. The National Academy of Sciences, after reconstructing global average surface temperatures for the past two millennia, said Thursday the data are “additional supporting evidence … that human activities are responsible for much of the recent warming.”

Earth hottest it’s been in 2,000 years

And this is interesting:

Hawking, who suffers from a degenerative disease, uses a wheelchair and speaks through a computerized voice synthesizer, said he was “very worried about global warming.”

He said he was afraid that Earth “might end up like Venus, at 250 degrees centigrade and raining sulfuric acid.”

Stephen Hawking warns about global warming

And, now that Futurama is coming back… check this out:

Update: Here’s another one:

Global warming has been a popular topic among scientists

The Earth’s average temperature over the past quarter century has been the hottest in four centuries — and part of the world has been warmer during the past 25 years than any period in the past 1,000 years, according to the National Academy of Sciences in a recently published report. The data published in the report contains “additional supporting evidence: “that human activities are responsible for much of the recent warming.” Congressman Sherwood Boehlert, chairman of the House Science Committee, requested the 141-page report by the National Academy of Sciences.

Last 25 Years Warmest on Earth in Four Centuries

This is HUGE!

WRT54G v5 and V6 can now be flashed to linux without JTAG!!!

Its back baby! Oh ya!

Comedy Central is going back to the Futurama.

Three years after the show last aired on prime time, the cable net has signed a deal to resurrect the former Fox animated series for a minimum 13-episode run.

“Futurama” Pulls a “Family Guy”

BumpTop aims to enrich the desktop metaphor with expressive, lightweight techniques found in the real world.

Sometimes, you need stories like this to put things into perspective 🙂

The owner of a Los Angeles car dealership is suing Mercedes-Benz, its parent company DaimlerChrysler and other affiliates, alleging that a $1.7 million car purchased in 2004 wouldn’t run for more than 10 blocks without problems.

World’s most expensive lemon?

What is a Halo car?

Solstice is, in auto-industry speak, a “halo car.”

It’s one of those rare models that can draw a halo around a brand, bringing into showrooms potential buyers who, ultimately, may drive off in a totally different vehicle from the same nameplate.

Halo cars are hot and sexy. They generate buzz even before they go on sale. They often pack a wallop under the hood. They may echo hallowed automotive names or conjure up happier days.

Automakers hope love for car equals love for brand

See more Halo Cars here.

Are the home-price corrections coming?

If you haven’t bought a house yet, some good deals might be coming…

In 2003, Anita Britten refinanced her two-story brick cottage in Lithonia, Ga. using a hybrid adjustable rate mortgage, or ARM. Her lender reassured her that she could refinance out of the riskier loan into a traditional one when her interest rate started to reset.

Three years later, Britten can’t get a new mortgage and her monthly payment has jumped by a third in six months. She can’t afford her payments and may face foreclosure if her financial situation doesn’t change.

Foreclosures may jump as ARMs reset

I’m a bit torn about Volvo’s new collision warning system.

On one hand, its a really great idea… and I actually believe it will probably benefit a lot of drivers – particularly those yapping away on their cell phones.

But on the other hand, I feel like such automatic systems freak people out… and occasionally the systems themselves freak out – I have no idea what a failure in such a system would do, but I can’t imagine it would be good.

I’ve had the priviledge of hearing Al Gore speak about the global warming issue ealier this year… then, I had the priviledge of actually sitting down with him one-on-one about the topic some more about a month later.

I could ramble on about what we discussed, or you could simpy just watch his new movie and you’ll pretty much get the jist of what we spoke about. 🙂

Google Video: An Inconvenient Truth – Trailer- 2min 30sec

I urge everyone to watch the film – its pretty shocking.

Looks like I got snapped while at BarCamp Houston:

Lots of great conversations, smart people, and plenty of energy at this camp.

If you’re reading this, and its still going on, I highly recommend stopping by… good stuff going on here. 🙂

Meanwhile, here’s the Flickr Pool.

Wow – times are changing… there was a time when nobody would dare own a Hyundai – now its almost silly to drive anything else!

Porsche and Hyundai leapfroggeda to the top of the influential J.D. Power Initial Quality Study, potentially boosting sales at both automakers as consumers continue to focus on quality as a leading factor in buying decisions.

Hyundai lands in top 3 for quality

At the bottom of the above article, you’ll find the complete list for 2006.

Here are the results for previous years:

• Rankings for 2005
• Rankings for 2004

Ok, this is awesome… anyone who has a mac should have this running…

SmackBook Pro

Everyone knows I love Vonage… so a lot of people have been asking me if I was going to participate in their IPO. Many where shocked to hear me say:

No.

Don’t get me wrong, as a customer, Vonage is awesome… there’s no other phone service I’d ever have. However, this is an investment decision and here’s why I was down on them:

• With BIG competition like AT&T’s Call Vantage and Time Warner’s Digital phone – its going to be tough going for Vonage… for the incumbent carriers, VoIP is life or death for them… so they’re not going to down without a serious fight.
• At about $17/share – Vonage is saying that they’re worth around $2.5billion. I don’t know about that – especially when you consider that Vonage has never turned a profit.
• Don’t forget the whole Net Neutrality issue.
• To me, its clear that Vonage is involving their customers in the IPO because they want to build excitement and demand for their stock… the problem is that 3 days before the closing of the “customer round” they sent out an email reminder that it was “closing soon” and that we’d better hurry up and get our money in… which sounds like they had problems getting people to sign up. So Econ 101 says that when there’s no demand, prices go down.

So what ended up happening? Lets go see…

Shares of Vonage Holdings (VG), the Internet telephone pioneer, dropped in their trading debut Wednesday after pricing late Tuesday at $17 a share, the middle of the expected range.
Shares of Vonage fell $2.31, or 13.6%, to $14.69 in late trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Investors drop Internet phone pioneer Vonage

And my favorite:

“Internet phone service provider Vonage Holdings Corp.’s initial public offering encountered shareholder static Wednesday morning, and appeared headed for the worst IPO debut in two years.“

Vonage IPO is a Train Wreck

Perhaps Buffett was right – maybe investing (or not investing) in things you understand the most is a good thing. 🙂

This is a very impressive and compelling demo of Parallels for MacOS:

Watch this…. you’ll want a Vette afterwards:

😀

All you ever wanted to know about Apple’s New NYC Store.

If you didn’t already know, its all underground.

Video: Apple’s 24-7 retail store

And here’s a CNBC clip:

Update: Here’s a sweet Panaramic photo of it:

http://www.panoramas.dk/newspanos/f20-apple-store.html

Wow, its like Motorola is trying take over with cell phone radiation!

Ten highest-radiation cell phones (United States)

Ten lowest-radiation cell phones (United States)

Hate how SWA doesn’t have assigned seats? Don’t like the “herding of the cattle” while trying to board?

Change is not certain, and could not happen before 2008, company says.

Southwest considers move to assigned seating

I’ve always thought this was true, but its good to see someone has written about it:

You can tell a lot about a person by the way he or she treats the waiter.

CEOs say how you treat a waiter can predict a lot about character

This is fascinating stuff:

Everyone thinking about buying a house should read this:

Sell Now! : The End of the Housing Bubble

One of my favorite quotes in the book talks about how the housing market in San Antonio has dropped 20% in value as of late, but nobody knows it because its typical that people don’t adjust for inflation or for the lower interest rates (which lowers the value of owning a home since it becomes less of a tax-shelter when interest rates drop).

Another great article of relevance is “The New Road to Serfdom: An Illustrated Guide To The Coming Real Estate Collapse” in the May 2006 issue of Harper’s Magazine.

I no longer have the desire to own a home. 🙁

Update: Wow, looks like San Antonio is worse than the book said it was:

San Antonio’s housing market has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country, according to RealtyTrac Inc.’s 2006 U.S. Metropolitan Foreclosure Market Report.

The Alamo City ranked eighth nationwide in the number of foreclosed properties — reporting one foreclosure for every 133 households in the first quarter of 2006.

San Antonio one of country’s worst housing markets for foreclosures

The Halo 3 trailer is out! Maybe its time to get a Xbox 360 and an HDTV set after all… 🙂

Halo 3 Trailer

Apple’s new set of ads are great… the “Restarting” ad reminds me of the Kill Bill ad that Dirk sent me a while back…

Good stuff:

http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/