Media Watch

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. Dig...

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.

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...

Wayne Madsen: Exposing Karl Rove

If four murderous blades aren't enough for ya, try this new Gillette Veinte, with twenty whisker-eating whackers! First came the single blade disposable shaving razor, then we sued the competition for trying to keep up! ...from the "just silly" department.

The saps are whining again.  Not surprisingly, "The Metro" has experienced a drop in revenue, according to href="http://www.dmregister.com/news/stories/c4780932/22370829.html" target="_blank">The Des Moines Register , apparently the fault of a lower number of riders.  Until there's a real benefit from letting someone else take the wheel, Desmoiniacs are sticking with the McVicker Speedway under their own guidance and direction. The bus will never take you where you want to go, when you want to go -- unless you seek a lifestyle that perfectly matches the bus routes & schedules.  Nobody does that though. There is still much to be said for mass transit.  Let's look at some societal problems MTA could solve if it were used effectively. Drunk driving Reckless driving Unsafe driving Driving too fast Distracted driving Traffic congestion Car trouble Car accidents Rubber necking Financial res...

We occasionally talk about how important it is to protect your computer from viruses, trojan horses and worms and subsequently get a lot of questions about which applications are the best.  Here's our short list. Norton Antivirus from Symantec ($50) My personal favorite.  I've always had good luck with this product; no quirky problems associated with installing or using it. McAfee Virusscan from Network Associates ($35) Some quirkiness.  It's cheaper though, and many use it without having the issues I've had! AVG Anti-Virus from GriSOFT (Free) This is the freebie Corey's mentioned several times.  I've never used it, but Corey says it's a fine product.