Noah Counte

• Tivo is losing customers at a pretty astounding rate. They'll have to do something to stem the tide of customers who are heading to Direct TV's digital recording service. Personally, it doesn't make a lot of difference to me which who succeeds or fails. Or if either or both succeed or fail, for that matter. But it does shine a light on teh fact that customer service matters. Discussions I've seen or had recently about a) mobile companies, b) cable companies, c) land-lnie telephone companies, and more, all suggest that people are fed up. Tiebout said that people "vote with their feet," and this downturn in in Tivo's market share underscores that they take their pocket books with them.
• If you're a Linux user, you know that one of the joys is having multiple desktops. Multipe shortcut collections, multiple wallpapers, the whole nine. Now you can enjoy the same luxury in Windows, too.
• Wind energy may sound like a great idea, but there are still some things to work out. You know, like how to get that energy from the turbine farm to the consumer...
• Clayton County, GA School District loses accreditation. First time in 40 years that's happened in the US. 50,000 students, and no plan. Check out the headline by a proud graduate of the underperforming district.
• Don't get stuck out in public with no place to "go." Use Diaroogle.
• Powerful ToDo List for your thumbdrive. Multilevels (subtasks) and everything!
• Free Shiznit:
  • Reduce, reuse, Freecycle. Find stuff you need, give stuff to people who need it. Cool!
  • Big ol' list of freebies.
  • And a shorter list of things you shouldn't buy new that will save you money.
  • Ad-based free directory assistance.
  • Like Starbucks' flavored coffee treats? Make your own!
  • Note quite free, but cheaper: soup night saves a couple of bucks per family member. Do it once a week, and save hundreds per year!
  • Read tons of magazines online - for free! You have to sign up, but ... It's free!
• Keep hydrated, and do the environment and your body a favor: safe reusable water bottles.
• Mind map your computer. Cool navigation tools on your desktop: The Brain. If you haven't seen this type of associative linking, you can see something similar in action at LivePlasma, or Music Map. You can download the Brain to your desktop, you can share it with your friends, and it's free. You lose some functionality after 30 days, if you choose not to pay, but the basic version is feature rich. Read the list of features.
• If you need to edit audio files, you can use Audacity, which is free, and has a ton of bells and whiles. Or, you can use Wavepad Sound Editor, which is free, and easy to use.
• You know how, when you use google maps or yahoo maps, you get a map with a bunch of little pushpins showing the locations of things? You can create your own googlemaps, and define your own push pins. Very cool!
• Too many dropped calls? Don't have so many car accidents.
• A health care advisor for the McCain campaign told the Dallas Morning News that no one in the US is uninsured, because we can all go to the emergency room. You know, because some emergency rooms are not allowed to turn people away for financial reasons. Genius. More than that, because we can all get emergency care, we should stop citing statistics that reflect less than 100% health care coverage. Suddenly, we have the best coverage in the world! Another shining example of redefining fauilure as success. The McCain campaign wisely said "he's not an official advisor."
• The ultimate personal organizer? Let Chandler organize your life - and it's free!
• This kills me. The traffic 'copter caught an idiot doing something stupid, and derides him for a minute and 41 seconds. I must say, I'm with the traffic reporter on this one. On the plus side, he seems to have done major damage to his car.
• Hard times for Starbucks. The good news is, there's something in it for you. Like specials in the afternoon. If you visited in the morning. And kept your receipt. And want an iced coffee.
• Kitsap County is sort of south and west of Seattle. You have to drive around or swim across Puget Sound to get there. And once you are there, you discover that hillbillies aren't the sole purvue of Appalaccia. Finally, someone is doing her civic-minded best to end the party in back.
• "Jesus loves me, this I know,
  Gimme $10 worth of gas to go!"
• If you've lost a a pair of burning pants, police in York, Maine would like a word with you.
• Telemarketer has a bad day. Caller ID makes it worse.
• Politics make for strange bedfellows, and even stranger hospital roomates. "They went to yelling and bumping bellies," and then things got ugly...
• Pittsburgh is sued for not allowing exercise. Well, you know there's more to it than that. It's pole dancing as exercise. Weird, since Pittburgh has its share of all nude models working at adult book stores.
• Republicans at county fair in Washington State stoop to a new low.
• Woman diagnoses cancer in internet friend's baby just by looking at a photograph, and saves the baby's life. How cool is that?
• DIY:
  • I wouldn't normally include anything that starts off with "consult a structural engineer," but this is a pretty cool rooftop garden.
  • If you've ever wanted Mason Jar lights for your back yard, your wait is over!
  • Structural furniture elements from old magaizines.
  • How to fix your own printer. Advice from people who have had the same problem.
  • How to soften new sheets.
  • How to remove splinters.
  • Powdered milk: multi-purpose in a box.
  • Make a shsoulder bag from floppy disks.
  • How to hotwire your car... or your neighbor's...
  • How to remove a stubborn lid. Or you could use a mousepad...
  • You look like you could use some lunch. In a box.
• If God really loves the Republicans, why is he sending a Hurricane named Gustav to interrupt their Convention? President Bush might miss his speech, because of the storm.
• "Happy birthday to me,
  Happy Birthday to me,
  Happy birthday, happy birthday...
  Hey, do you like my birthday suit?
  I'm Jesus Christ!"
• Democrats in Denver for the Convention aren't visiting strip clubs. The politicians' advance teams were a little more responsive last week, though.
• There were 4,000 delgates in Denver for the Democratic National Convention. And 15,000 reporters. Wonder what all those journalists were up to?
• Seems there's a Swedish Sea Monster. Take that, Nessie!
• Hey gents: turn off the seat warmer, your boys can't swim in that sauna.
• I don't normally tell criminals how to do their job, but this fellow needs some help. Hey Jason, if you have hostages, don't send them out for beer. Some of them probably won't be trustworthy, and may not come back.

Last, but not least, if you live outside the US, and can't access some YouTube videos that people post links to, here's a work-around that takes you from the video hosted on the display page to one meant for embedding. Most YouTube URLs look something like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEOID

http://www.youtube.com/v/VIDEOID