This is both scary and extremely cool at the same time. GM will be launching the Opel Vectra in 2008 with a self-driving system. It supposedly can navigate through traffic and read signs even at 60 mph. I wonder if the cell phone laws while driving will apply?
For all my iPod owner friends, this won’t be of much help to you. However, I wanted to let everyone know that the Yahoo! Unlimited service is great. For only $5 a month (when you pre-pay annually) you get access to instantly play over 1 million songs or download them to a portable music player. In my scenario, this works perfectly. I can connect my Treo 650 to my computer and transfer songs directly from the Yahoo! Music Engine (YME) and listen to them on the go. This has been a great new feature to my already super-cool phone/pda.
At first, I liked the service, but thought it had some shortcomings. For example, you used to only get album results when you did a search for an artist. Now they’ve fixed that by letting you choose your view (albums/songs). They’ve also added the ability to listen to song from the top 100 chart. Pretty nice upgrades to an already good service.
On top of that, YME is customizable. I liked iTunes feature that allowed you to subscribe and download Podcasts directly in iTunes. I didn’t think YME could handle podcasts, but I found a plugin for it on the YME plugin page.
There is a free trial of the service, so check it out and decide for yourself.
A lot of people ask me for help when they have computer problems. One of the biggest frustrations with computers (at least PCs) is Windows starting to run slowly and overall system performance getting worse. One of the best and easiest, although time consuming, ways to improve performance overall is to format your hard drive and reinstall Windows. I have had to do this on my current laptop at least once before and have done it on every computer I’ve owned–sometimes multiple times.
Here is a step-by-step guide to reinstalling Windows.
Let me first warn you that every system is different. While your process should be easy and error free, things can go bad. If you run into problems don’t hesitate to get some more help.
1. BACKUP YOUR DOCUMENTS
This is the most important step of them all. Almost every software program is replaceable, but your Word files, music, pictures, videos and such are not replaceable. If you have a CD/DVD burner this should be relatively easy to do. In my own situation I was able to copy all of my files from my laptop to my desktop via network connection. This might work for you as well, although having a hard backup is a really good thing to have.
2. Make a list of all the programs/software you use on a regular basis.
Sometimes it’s easy to forget some of the programs that you don’t use very often. Just click through the “All Programs” button in the Start menu and make a list (and print it out) of the programs you want to make sure you’ll get reinstalled after the format.
3. Track down all your software discs and activation codes.
If you have a name brand computer like Dell or HP, is should have come with restore CDs and the Windows XP disc. I recommend doing a format and install from the XP disc, not the restore. The restore CD puts a lot of extra software on that you probably don’t use anyway.
4. Put the XP CD in your CD drive and reboot.
Your computer should be set to be able to boot from CD by default. If, with the XP CD in the drive, your computer boots to Windows like normal you probably need to change some settings in your bios. You can typically get into your bios by press F2 or something like that when the very first screen comes up right after you turn on your computer. Check for something like “Boot Order” and make sure the CD drive is selected.
5. Follow the options Windows offers to reinstall.
At this point, XP basically guides you through step-by-step. You want to make sure you choose new installation or something like that. Also, if it gives you the options, make sure you format the drive. This makes sure you have a clean install.
6. Download Windows updates using Windows Update.
You’ll need internet access at this point. The very first thing you need to do is click Start > All Programs > Windows Update. This might take a while if you have to download Service Pack 2 (especially if you’re on dial-up). There are a lot of securtiy updates that Windows has released and the sooner you get those on your computer the safer it will be.
7. Download updated drivers.
Again, if you have a name brand computer this is easy. Just go to the company’s website and look for a support/drivers link. They keep all the most current drivers for the computer in this one spot.
8. Download / Install your software list.
Start with Firefox and then get the rest of the programs. You’ll want to install the software from the company’s website whenever possible. The newest versions are kept there and they’re always better.
9. Enjoy your clean, smooth-running machine.
If you go through the reinstall process, please comment on how it went and if I’m missing any steps. It’s been a little while since I’ve done it myself, so I may have left something out.
I’ve blogged quite a few time on the Mavericks. Most recently I talked about Michael Finley and the decision to waive him. Mark Cuban just posted about the agony that came along with the decision to let Fin go. Let me state a few things.
I believe that one of the reasons Mark has done so well in business is that he’s not afraid to admit mistakes. In his post, he took the blame for the previous moves that cost the Mavs financial flexibility. He said it was his own fault. Now, anyone who follows sports closely knows that most moves are not made by one person alone. There is a group of people, such as owner, GM, coach, and others, who are involved with the process. Even though Mark could have use the language “we made mistakes” he decided to take the fall himself. That’s a sign of not only good, but great leaderhsip.
Jim Collins, in the book Good to Great, wrote that leaders of companies that have made the leap to being truly great companies were the one who would accept blame but deflect praise. That’s not normal. Most of us have the tendency to try to point the finger at others when things go bad while taking the credit when things go well.
In a post about success, Mark wrote “we knew that we would get a great audience” and “The Path of Least Resistance is a key to why HDNet Films is offering our slate of films in a variety of day and date options.” Notice the inclusive language. Mark is writing that his success was not an individual success, but it was part of a team. That’s great leadership.
I firmly believe that as long as Mark Cuban is leading the organization, the Dallas Mavericks will continue to be one of the best organizations in the NBA.
There are officially no ties in Dallas to the dark days of the Mavericks. The Mavericks waived Michael Finley on Monday to save $51 over the next three seasons. With Shawn Bradley’s retirement earlier this summer and Finley being waived there are no more player who came from the era when 20 games was considered a good season and you could get floor seats from a scalper for less than $25.
I’ve been a fan of the Mavericks since the Reuonion Rowdies days of the late 80s. In the past, I thought of Finley as the gel that kept the Mavericks together. While Dirk and Nash got all the attention, Finley quietly led the team and held the whole thing together. Over the past few years, however, Finley’s stats have steadily declined while Dirk’s stats and leadership have grown.
I think the Mavericks are better off without Finley. He hasn’t been producing and his starter position could have been filled easliy by the likes of Stackhouse, Jameson, or Howard. Now we can look to the post-Big 3 era. I believe the Mavs have the best core of players they have ever had. It was a bitter end last year, losing to the Suns on our court, but I think having Avery Johnson as the head coach for a full training camp and season will pay off in a big way.
November 1 can’t come soon enough!!!
If you’ve been following the Mavs for awhile like me, you know that Dirk Nowitzki has often spoke highly of his coach back home in Germany. Well, according to the AP his coach has been in jail for 3 weeks and was recently denied a request to be released. He’s being investigated for tax reasons.
My personal thought is that this will probably not affect Dirk too much. He’s grown a lot over the past few years. The only way this could play negatively in the Mavs season is if his coach is in jail for an extended potion of the regular season. Only then should we worry.
Read the story here.
Just in case you haven’t heard, there’s a better option for web browsing out there than Internet Explorer. Firefox has quickly become one of my favorite software programs of all time. It’s a much more stable software (very rare for it to crash), highly customizable and user-friendly.
My favorite things about it are (in no particular order):
– Search box (you can search many different websites by typing in the box on the top right of the page)
– Tabbed browsing (doesn’t seem like big deal at first, but once you start using it a lot you can’t live without it)
– Extensions (this is where it blows IE out of the water!!!)
I currently use the following extensions:
– Adblock
– Forecastfox
– FoxyTunes
– SmoothWheel
– Tabbrowser Preferences
– Yahoo! Toolbar
– MapIt!
– downTHEMall!
Best of all, it’s FREE!!! If you haven’t got it yet, download it now!
The second stop on our trip last week was at the port of Calica, Mexico. It’s a small port just south of Playa Del Carmen. This was a really different place for a cruise ship to dock. There were no other cruise ships anywhere close to where we were. The pier was back down a dirt road in an industrial area. There were huge pile of rocks/sand that it looked like they were developing. It was not a touristy type place at all.
The day started out the strangest out of any day on the trip. We had a reservation with Budget to have a car from 8:00 am – 4:00 pm. We took a taxi from the pier to the rental car place. We got there at about 8:15 and it wasn’t open. We thought that was strange, so we walked around the block to make sure we were at the right place. After waiting for about 15 minutes we asked around to see what time the place normally opened and some locals told us that the guy didn’t usually get there until around 10 am. We eventually worked out a deal with Hertz for a Dodge Atoz (raw power!!!) and finally headed back to the ship at around 9:30.
The drive to the Mayan ruins at Tulum took about 45 minutes. Chris and I followed the rule, “When in Mexico, drive like a Mexican.” There were a few passes that we were closer than we wanted to be to the cars going the other way, but we got there in one piece. The ruins were really cool. We couldn’t walk up on any of them, but the view at the beach was absolutely incredible. It was really humid and hot, but once we got in the water the trip was well worth it.
Here are some pictures at Tulum:
I thought I’d share a little bit about the cruise we took last week and the different locations we visited. The first stop we made was in Cozumel, Mexico. We arrived at Cozumel and got of the ship at about 9:30 am. The port we were at was your typical cruise-tourist boat. There were about half a dozen cruise liners within the area and the port had all of your touristy type of shops.
Our main activity of the day was snorkeling. Thanks to Patti from International Scuba in Carrollton, we decided to head over to Chankanaab National Park. The snorkeling there was incredible. The beach went right up to the coastline, but then you had to walk into the water on rocks. Other than that, everything was perfect. It was definitely the best snorkeling I’ve ever done. The park itself was pretty beat up by hurricane Emily. There used to be a museum, but it was taken down by the storm. The trees were pretty beat up and one of the shops had its roof blown away. There were a few iguanas throughout the park as well.
In the afternoon we did a little bit of shopping and pretty much took it easy. Tomorrow I’ll write about Calica and Tulum.
We’re back from cruising through the Gulf of Mexico. We had good weather (no hurricanes, unlike my brother) and didn’t get rained on at Cozumel or Playa del Carmen. I’ve posted some pics over at Flickr.
The cruise was a lot of fun. Our head waiter was from Romania and did this strange mumbling thing when he served us anything. It was funny. As far as cruise ships go, the Carnival Ecstasy was ok, but didn’t blow us away. It was designed in the late 80’s and looks like it. The food was good, but didn’t blow us away. The room service didn’t have a huge selection.
But with all of that said, the cruise was still a blast and well worth it.