Looks the the retailers are getting smarter and smarter…

As you step in the door of a retail store — whether it sells Gucci handbags, jeans for teens or hardware — you’re being lured to shop and spend in ways so subtle you probably don’t know what’s happening to you.

Just browsing at the mall? That’s what you think

I read this glowing article about how great tea is for you:

If you drink three or more cups of tea a day you might be doing your health more good than drinking plain water, say researchers from King’s College, London, UK. This new study found, among other things, that the urban myth that tea dehydrates could not be further from the truth – tea hydrates as well as water does, say the researchers.

Drinking Tea Is Better For Health Than Plain Water

and thought – “Maybe I should drink more tea… hmmm”

Then when I got to the end and saw this:

The Research was funded by The Tea Council.

Oh boy.

It looks like some good deals for homes are coming up in Texas…

As home sales continue to heat up in Austin, the area is experiencing another sort of housing increase — in foreclosures.

Report: Austin ranks high for home foreclosures

I remember that my father wouldn’t allow the doctors to use ultrasound on me… maybe he was on to something…

Exposure to ultrasound can affect fetal brain development, a new study suggests. But researchers say the findings, in mice, should not discourage pregnant women from having ultrasound scans for medical reasons.

Ultrasound can affect brain development

Couple of interesting articles on global warming popped up recently… the first one:

Global warming is affecting the intensity of Atlantic hurricanes, according to a new study by a university professor in Florida who says his research provides the first direct link between climate change and storm strength.

Global warming affects hurricane intensity: study

And this one:

Climate change could be slowed by burying greenhouse gases blamed for global warming deep below the ocean floor under thick, cold sediment that would trap it for thousands of years, said a team of Harvard-led scientists.

Scientists urge deep-sea cure for climate change

The latest on the housing market…

This on building:

U.S. homebuilder optimism sank for a seventh consecutive month in August to its lowest level in 15 years as potential buyers pulled back amid rising uncertainty in the housing market, an industry trade group survey showed on Tuesday

Homebuilder optimism sinks

This on selling:

The slowdown in the once-sizzling housing market is spreading, with 28 states and the District of Columbia reporting spring sales declines, led by big drops in former boom areas of Arizona, Florida and California.

Home sales decline in 28 states, D.C.

So if you’re buying – it looks like you’re gonna be in great shape! 😀

Have seen the prices for virtual web hosting these days?

At Godaddy.com, you can now get 200gigs of disk space and 2terabytes of transfer for $15/month… no setup fees, no contracts… In fact, for the $15/month… you also get an SSL certificate, your choice of Windows or Linux, and all the addons you need… including SQL, Rails hosting, etc… they’ll even throw in a domain name for 2 bucks!

For that much disk and transfer, I can’t think why you’d want to do dedicated hosting anymore… wow!

This is sad… Eliot sent this to me after we all had some food at In-N-Out on the same day as this article…

Esther L. Snyder, who founded the In-N-Out Burgers restaurant chain with her husband, has died. She was 86.

Esther Snyder, matriarch of In-N-Out Burgers, dies at 86

A friend of mine sent me this link… cool!

The Aluminium 41 White LED 2 mode handtorch is bright, tough, and remarkably handy. Its piercing light comes from 41 bright white LEDs each with a life of 100,000 hours so you’ll never replace a bulb again. This flashlight features 2 way lighting for 21 LED short and 41 LED long distances. Plus, with a durable design and a battery life of up to 25 hours, this flashlight gives you the peace of mind you need in challenging situation, it’s O-ring sealed and water resistant.

41 LED Flashlight

and while we were at a bar, we saw this faux-candles used… and they looked pretty real:

Lasts Several Days on a set of Batteries • No Hot Wax • No Fire Hazard • No Wind Effect

Flameless LED Candle Flickers Like a Real Candle

Finally! Someone said it! 😀

Forget the silly debate over pixel counts among digital cameras. There is little visible difference between cameras with seemingly different ratings. For instance, a 3 MP camera pretty much looks the same as a 6 MP camera, even when blown up to 12 x 18!” I know because I’ve done this. Have you?

The Megapixel Myth

I always thought the 100-calorie packs of cookies, and the new smaller cans of soda were a great idea…

It’s “unit bias,” the tendency to think that a single unit of food — a bottle, a can, a plateful, or some more subtle measure — is the right amount to eat or drink, researchers propose.

Study: Surroundings play key role in diet

One of the great things about living in a major city is access to non-stop flights…

The fliers on American Airlines’ new USA-to-India flight know they are facing a long haul — the longest that American offers worldwide — and they’re steeling themselves for it. Fifteen hours on a plane. Fifteen non-stop hours. On a plane. With no stops.

Life aboard a 15-hour flight to India

Motorweek’s review of the Cadillac XLR-V… anyone want a ride? 😀

http://mpt.org/motorweek/video/roadtests/rt2540a_flash.shtml

Its well known that I love modding Xboxes and convert them into media players using Xbox Media Center. XBMC is great – it basically turns the Xbox into a media playing frontend for music, video, photos, streaming, etc…

Whenever a friend comes over and sees a demo of it, they immediately want one of their own. The only problem is – I usually get stuck with modding it for them… and the process takes an hour or longer since it involves dissassembling the Xbox, soldering, and a whole bunch of steps after that… not fun.

Seems that an enterprising individual figured out a way to mod the Xbox purely with software.

Dust off that old Xbox, add a little free software, and get your movies and songs into the living room where they belong

Xbox Media Monster

So on Sunday, I picked up a used Xbox at the local EBGames for about $100 and tried the Soft-Mod method – and after about 10mins…

It worked exactly as described – Awesome! 😀

I had completely missed this… seems that Gamestop and EBGames have merged!

GameStop Corp. (GME) and Electronics Boutique Holdings Corp. (ELBO), owner of EB Games, announced that their shareholders have green-lighted the merger of the two companies. The approval was the last step in the deal, which was made public in April.

Shareholders OK GameStop, EB Games merger

One of the most common mistakes people make when trying to avoid spam is ignoring how the email address is published.

Its amazing how often I see people’s addresses published on web pages – this is a spam-magnet. In fact, there was a study done awhile back, and it was pretty much 100% certain that if you published an email address on a webpage, that address would shortly start receiving spam. I forget where I read it, but when I run across it, I’ll make an update to this entry.

With that said, here are some really great tips on how to avoid posting your address on a web page:

I’ve compiled a list of methods to hide email addresses from the page source, to minimize visibility against the email harvesting spam bots. Each method has its (dis)advantages, therefore I leave it up to the reader to decide which method suits them the most, as there are many factors

Hiding Email Addresses

Sometimes, I feel this way too… 🙂

Convertible… 4-wheel drive… made by Audi… hmm…. 🙂

This guy as built one of the coolest home garages I’ve seen… he’s even installed a Bend-Pak lift so he can cram more cars in it… most impressive. Check it out:

Ed and Sandra’s Garage

I saw this on Dateline a few weeks ago. Its really quite scary to think that ice can make you sick.

You can watch the video of the show on the right-hand sidebar of the article:

Are food-handlers taking the same precautions with ice?

Health officials traced a gastrointestinal illness to coolers containing drinking water for the golfers.

Dirty ice can make you sick

This has been obvious to me for some time, but lots of people don’t realize this:

A radar detector should be mounted as high on the windshield as possible, preferably flush with the roof of the car. Any other mounting is a waste of time, money and dash space.

World’s Greatest… Radar Detectors

The Gizmo Project now supports Asterisk PBX integration… this is great news!

SIPphone, Inc., developers of the free Internet calling software Gizmo Project, today announced the delivery of Gizmo Project 2.0, highlighted by its support for Asterisk PBX software. Giving Gizmo Project users the ability to log into Asterisk means they can now be universally reachable via their Asterisk PBX or directly through the Gizmo Project network. The option to seamlessly receive calls from their office PBX while anywhere in the world leverages Gizmo Project’s advanced NAT (“network address translation”), firewall and router traversal features and server infrastructure.

Gizmo Project 2.0 Now Asterisk PBX-Compatible

Why am I so excited about Gizmo? Read this:

Why is Gizmo Project better than Skype, Vonage, etc?

And my buddy Chris just sent me this:

SIPphone on Thursday announced that users of Gizmo Project — its Mac-compatible Voice over IP (VoIP) communication service — can now place free calls to landlines and mobile phones in 60 countries. Signing up for Gizmo Project is free.

Gizmo Project VoIP service goes free

A couple of years ago, I met Elon Musk, who founded PayPal, SpaceX, and the new Tesla Motors… Since I wasn’t allowed to talk about his new project, I’d been secretly awaiting the arrival of his new electric sports car thats just been announced…

Can’t wait to get one! 😀

Martin Eberhard holds the brake down with his left foot and presses on the accelerator with his right. The motor revs, the car strains against the brake. I hear … almost nothing. Just a quiet whine like the sound of a jet preparing for takeoff 5 miles away. We’re belted into a shimmering black sports car on a quiet, tree-lined street in San Carlos, California, 23 miles south of San Francisco. It has taken Eberhard three years to get this prototype ready for mass production, but with the backing of PayPal cofounder Elon Musk, Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and ex-eBay chief Jeff Skoll, he has created Silicon Valley’s first real auto company.

Battery-Fueled Car Will Smoke You

Its my understanding that you can avoid such things by calling late, late at night… [shrug]

I wouldn’t have thought that “southern Ohio” woud be hit by the slowdown… but I suppose even the “less hot” areas are feeling it too…

When Keith Gersin saw the perfect four-bedroom house in southern Ohio four years ago, he jumped to buy it before anyone else could snap it up. When he finally sold it last month, it went for $30,000 less than he had hoped — and that after seven months on the market.

Home sellers, builders feel pinch of slowdown