Archive for May, 2006
A few days back, I posted an entry regarding the XM satelite radio in my Honda Accord. It seems that ever since I wrote about that; I have been seeing a lot of Sirius ads on the homepage. I would think that since I was writing about XM radio; I would have gotten ads from XM. I guess XM does not spend as much money on advertising as Sirius does. Sirius stock ( SIRI ) has taken quite a bit of hit lately. They made some huge news a few months ago when they lured Howard Stern. I believe they paid him $500million+. I wonder how that deal is working for them. Anyways; now that I just wrote about Sirius; I guess I should expect more of their ads showing up now. Does anyone have Satellite radio? Are you even thinking about getting it? For me; I think Radio is one thing I do not want to pay for. 
May 31st, 2006
I posted a story a few months ago about Geek fight clubs springing up in silicon valley. I read the same story today on USA Today ; I guess this phenomenon is catching up and becoming more mainstream now.
May 30th, 2006
Memorial day weekend is a perfect time to be out on the lake. In fact, I was reading Time magazine this wknd and there was an advertisement regarding ‘Discover boating’. They made a compelling case on why having a boat is a good idea. With boating, one important thing is to have good navigation equipment. I found out that now a days; Mariners can get free electronic downloads of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Raster Navigational Charts (RNCs). A raster chart is basically a digitally scanned nautical chart that is useful for navigation. According to Charles Challstrom, acting assistant administrator for NOAA’s oceans and coasts, raster navigational charts contribute to safe, efficient, and environmentally sound marine transportation. The nice thing is that these charts are being provided free of charge to US mariners. Weekly updates can bet obtained from http://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov
One good place to get this and other electronics for boating, camping, hunting, fishing is Northeast Marine Electronics. They carry standard Horizon electronics as well as GPS chart plotters. Be sure to check out their selection of Marine VHF . They also carry a large selection of electronic fishing tools like Furuno Fish Finders. Be sure to check out their site for all your discount marine electronic needs.
May 30th, 2006
I have been looking forward to memorial day wknd for such a long time. Its the first 3 day weekend in over 3 months; so naturally I was looking forward to it. We went to my parent’s place for the weekend. They live in Selma; which is about 200 miles from where we are. It was a fun 3 days. On Saturday; me and Dad built a ’storage shed’ for the backyard. That darn thing took majority of Saturday afternoon; but the end result was pretty good.
Then on Saturday night; we went to a wedding reception. Lots of good indian food :). On Sunday; went over to my aunt’s place. Monday was just spent lounging around the home. We decided to spend Monday night at home and drive back to Folsom on Tuesday morning. That sounded like an great idea at the time; but at about 4am tuesday; it didn’t look too bright. Anyways; I was able to drag myself out of bed and we made it to Folsom about 8am. This is going to be loooong day at work.. can’t wait to go home and take a nap So that was our Memorial day weekend.. and now back to work!
May 30th, 2006
I bought a 2006 Honda accord a month back. It came with a XM satellite radio built in; and also included was a 3 month free subscription. My work commute is about 8 minutes; so I do not really have time to listen to the radio. I was planning on cancelling the subscription as soon as my 3 months were up. That might have changed after yesterday.
Yesterday we drove about 200 miles to my parent’s house. They live in central California, near Fresno. Its a good 3 hour trip; sometimes longer due to the traffic. We finally had a chance to take the radio out for a through spin. Listening to 3 hours of ESPN sportscenter was even better than watching it on tv. hehe.. Anyways; one cool thing I noticed was the way they broadcast NBA games. Yesterday it was Game 2 between Phoenix and Dallas. The game was on ESPN; so it was being broadcasted live on their XM station. I have listened to games on the radio before; but this one had a neat twist on it. The display of the radio showed GAME DATA!! Let me explain. On the display; instead of showing “XM ch 141 ESPN’; it changed to “PHX 15 DAL 7′. Yup; it actually showed the score of the game. The score was updated about 2 seconds after the game. As soon as the broadcaster would announce a basket; the score was updated right there on the display. That was a very cool feature! I wonder if it will work on NFL as well. Maybe I do not have any excuse now to stay home on Sundays to ‘watch’ the games..
May 27th, 2006
I religiously use Picasa on my computer to manage my digital pictures. I have been trying out a few things on Kubuntu but did not find anything as cool as Picasa. I tried using digiKam, showFoto but none of them came close to the beauty and power of Picasa. Well; looks like my search for a Picasa replacement is over in Kubuntu. Google labs has introduced a native Linux version. It runs and looks just like the Windows version; and trust me, in this case that is a good thing.
Link to Download
The whole thing downloaded and installed in seconds; thanks to the nice packaging job Google did.
May 25th, 2006
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