NYTimes – Air Taxis Fly Into Financial Turbulence

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/20/business/20taxi.html?adxnnl=1&ref=business&adxnnlx=1211308166-Yok7l59Ik9cGTb20QzIOSA

DayJet has about 1,600 members, nearly all of them business travelers, who pay an annual fee to register. About 200 are frequent fliers. “Our average ticket price is in the $600 to $700 range, exactly where we want to be” for flights of less than 300 miles, he said. But the tight credit markets have put its future in jeopardy.

XP v Vista; Windows blogs

Defensive Computing, Michael Horowitz/CNET
http://www.cnet.com/defensive-computing/
Is Windows XP good enough?
http://www.cnet.com/8301-13554_1-9929591-33.html

SuperSite for Windows, Paul Thurrott
http://www.winsupersite.com/
Sticking with Windows XP in a Windows Vista World
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_xp_apps.asp

William Gibson’s wristwatch obsession – circa 1998?

http://paragonasia.warp0.com/articl02.html

I thought I was immune to the Net. Then I got bitten by eBay.
By William Gibson

When I was a young man, traversing the ’70s in whatever post-hippie, pre-slacker mode I could manage, I made a substantial part of my living, such as it was, in a myriad of minuscule supply-and-demand gaps that have now largely closed. I was what antique dealers call a “picker,” a semi-savvy haunter of Salvation Army thrift shops, from which I would extract objects of obscure desire that I knew were up-marketable to specialist dealers, who sold in turn to collectors. To this day I am often unable to resist a professionally quick, carefully dispassionate scan over the contents of any thrift shop…

 

Fractional ownership of European property

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/14/greathomesanddestinations/14gh-paris.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1

The legal structure used for fractional ownership here is designed to avoid French bureaucracy and inheritance taxes that can total two-thirds of a property’s value. In Mr. Navaro’s case, he formed an American company, Paris Home Shares LLC, that is the primary shareholder of his French company, a Société Civile Immobilier. The arrangement means American law governs the operating agreement among owners…

Pixel Qi – low power displays; assoc with OLPC

http://www.pixelqi.com/home

[ Reference: Technology Review article on OLPC adoption in Peru, current issue. Several additional articles on their Press page. ]

The display is currently the most expensive component in a laptop, and the most power hungry, and it’s uncomfortable to read when compared with paper.  We are going to fix this – we already took the first step with the OLPC screen.  The battery is the second most expensive component in the laptop or portable.  We propose to massively lower the power consumption of the screen and thus also massively lower the cost of the battery and how long you can run on it before you have re-charge it.

We will do all of this while making the screen lower cost, higher resolution, easier to read and sunlight readable.  We’ve already shown the first step of this at One Laptop per Child by creating a display that is 5X the resolution, 1/3 the cost, 1/10th the power consumption.  In addition the One Laptop per Child screen is sunlight readable and enables one to the turn the motherboard and CPU off while the screen stays on offering further massive power savings. We have big plans to take this much further. 

 

Invention & Technology Magazine archive

http://americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/it/

Sadly, paused publication 2008.

10 things to try when XP won’t boot

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/10things/?p=348&tag=nl.e101
http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tr/downloads/home/10_things_winxp_boot.pdf

AVION-io – Easy fly in/outdoor future-tech biplane

http://www.avionrc.com/index.php?s=content&p=Avionio

The AVION-io is packed with features:

2 Channel FM Fully Proportional R/C system with adjustable trim.

Advanced Micro Technology in an R/C airplane.

Can take off from the ground in as little as 10 feet.

Floats like a feather with gentle enough flight characteristics to land in your hand.

Lightweight high lift Bi-plane design.

Can soar into the skies for up to 20 minutes* on a single charge.

Adjustable tail can be set for beginners and experts alike.

Recharges directly from the built in peak detection fast charger in the transmitter.

Removable extended run time lithium polymer battery.

Up to 6 channels to choose from which allows flying with friends.

CAA and ALT-C conferences

http://www.caaconference.com/
International CAA Conference – Research into e-Assessment
Burleigh Court International Conference Centre, Loughborough University
The International CAA Conference is a vehicle dedicated to research matters in E-assessment. The conference next takes place on 8th and 9th July 2008.

http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2008/
ALT-C 2008: Rethinking the digital divide
Leeds, UK, 9-11 September 2008

Disable XP auto restart on update – 2 ways

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000294.html

1. Stop “Automatic Updates” service

2. Modify Group Policy settings