Used car shopping

Most people buy a used car at some point in their lives,
but how many do a little investigation before buying?  You should know what
you're buying before laying down the cash -- or worse yet, financing.  Many
dealers will now show you a CarFax data sheet.  They punch in the Vehicle
Identification Number (or VIN) and the computer spits out all it knows about
that particular car.  A VIN is unique to each car and can tell a lot about
the car, including make, model, body style, manufacturing plant, etc.  Try
this out.  Go to your car and carefully write down your VIN, then enter it
in one of the boxes below.  You may be surprised at what you can learn.

AnalogX Vin Decoder

VIN:  

---

CarFax Vin Decoder

VIN:  

---

AutoCheck Vin Decoder

VIN:  

---

Model years 1981 and later have 17-digit vehicle
identification numbers (VIN).  Anyone can decode them with a few basics.

Digit	Meaning
1	Country 1-4=USA, 2=Canada, 3=Mexico, J=Japan, K=Korea, S=Great Britain, W=Germany, Z=Italy
2	Manufacturer A=Audi or Jaguar, B=BMW, 4=Buick, 6=Cadillac, 1=Chevrolet, C=Chrysler, B=Dodge, F=Ford, 7=GM Canada, G=General Motors, H=Honda, L=Lincoln, D=Mercedes Benz, M=Mercury, N=Nissan, 3=Oldsmobile, 2 or 5=Pontiac, P=Plymouth, 8=Saturn, T=Toyota, V=VW or Volvo
3	Vehicle type or division
4	Body style, engine type, model, series, etc.
5
6
7
8
9	Check digit This number is used to ensure the accuracy of the whole VIN
10	Model year V=1997, W=1998, X=1999, Y=2000, 1=2001, 2=2002, 3=2003, 4=2004
11	Manufacturer's Assembly Plant
12	Serial number A sequentially assigned number as each car rolls of the assembly line.
13
14
15
16
17

How to catch a bird: Get it drunk!

According to the Reuters news agency, police in Dortmund, Germany say a Crow attacked a woman and young girl over the weekend, but the bird managed to evade their efforts -- that is until they laced some cat food with high-alcohol fruit schnapps. The bird could not resist. A police department spokesman said the crow was completely smashed when they caught up with it, and is now sleeping off its hangover in a local animal home.

Tech News: The New Napster & Tiny portability

I really like gadgets that have function.  I like music and I refuse to
pay a buck a song (I-Tunes, etal), so a $10/month subscription to Napster seems
to be the best way to go...right now.  You can pay 99¢
for a song (and $9.99 for an LP) if you don't want to subscribe, but I would
want a fair amount of time to build up my library before pulling the plug. 
I figure about a month. 

More...

I strongly suggest you use your personal email
like Hotmail or
Yahoo! Mail when
corresponding with your friends, families and extra-marital partners.  Oh,
forget the last group; they deserve to get caught!  Seriously, for all
practical purposes, privacy protections do not exist at work!  This is a
must-read for corporate employees using company email for personal use. 

More...

Have you seen the 1-gigabyte USB drive in slick
a color and a cute little package?  They let you keep your stuff with you
even if you're hiking in the wilderness.  The new ones even let you surf
the web on company computers without leaving cookies and downloaded files on
work machines.  $50-$150. 

More...