http://www.tc.umn.edu/~hick0088/mt/ This is the website of Mike Hicks, Geek. en-us hick0088@tc.umn.edu Sat, 04 Aug 2007 20:47:33 -0600 http://www.tc.umn.edu/~hick0088/mt/archives/001355.php After the connector bridge collapsed in San Francisco, Google Maps, Mapquest, and Yahoo! were praised for updating their directions quickly. Of course, they're mostly based in Silicon Valley not far away, so they had an incentive. I had a strong... http://www.tc.umn.edu/~hick0088/mt/archives/001354.php Zuh? Apparently I saw a Maserati Spyder today. At Rosedale.... http://www.tc.umn.edu/~hick0088/mt/archives/001353.php Oh, forgot to mention that I saw a "pickup" version of the ZAP Xebra in the St. Anthony Park neighborhood of St. Paul earlier this week (I think it was on Monday evening). Electric cars are coming, ever so slowly.... http://www.tc.umn.edu/~hick0088/mt/archives/001352.php Heh, my car is currently worth $2000 more than what I paid for it. Neat. Except for the whole tax and loan interest thing...... http://www.tc.umn.edu/~hick0088/mt/archives/001351.php I got the new Smashing Pumpkins CD Zeitgeist at Best Buy. Yes, the "exclusive" Best Buy version (which was identified as the "Amazon version" when I put it in my computer, go figure). Anyway, so it's just "Smashing Pumpkins" now?... http://www.tc.umn.edu/~hick0088/mt/archives/001350.php Samsung has recently advertised some high-contrast LCD televisions, so I was getting curious if I should go for one of those rather than wait until one of the more exotic technologies to appear, or use it to avoid the drawbacks... http://www.tc.umn.edu/~hick0088/mt/archives/001348.php Hmm. The old Harvard Market closed, but Harvard Market East is sticking around. I had no idea that it had been around for a century.... http://www.tc.umn.edu/~hick0088/mt/archives/001347.php I'm visiting my company's office in Florida this week, in the infamous Broward County. Crazy how many expensive cars there are down here. It only took me about five minutes after leaving my hotel the first evening to see a... http://www.tc.umn.edu/~hick0088/mt/archives/001346.php Hmm. It appears that, after factoring in the energy it takes to fuel the whole process, one square mile of corn turned to ethanol with current processes will fuel ten cars as efficient as mine for a year. Soy biodiesel... http://www.tc.umn.edu/~hick0088/mt/archives/001345.php It appears that gas prices in the Twin Cities have hit record highs at this point, averaging about $3.23/gal in recent days. This might also be an all-time (for the last century, at least) inflation-adjusted high. National average prices hit... http://www.tc.umn.edu/~hick0088/mt/archives/001344.php I'm not sure why I missed this earlier, but there's a really good article on the Tesla Roadster in May's edition of Vanity Fair, which does a good job of explaining the motivations behind the company founders. I wish they... http://www.tc.umn.edu/~hick0088/mt/archives/001343.php Randomly poking around the fueleconomy.gov website, I came across these eye-popping numbers for a 2000 Nissan Altra station wagon:MPG (city)117MPG (highway)130MPG (combined)123This Altra was, of course, an electric vehicle, so it's an MPG equivalent number, not actual number of gallons... http://www.tc.umn.edu/~hick0088/mt/archives/001342.php Important Update: Fidel Castro isn't dead yet. ...and neither is Andy Griffith...... http://www.tc.umn.edu/~hick0088/mt/archives/001341.php http://www.tc.umn.edu/~hick0088/mt/archives/001340.php Aagh! I'm trying to find ways to ditch Outlook at work. So far, the best option seems to be to use only as a calendar, and to use Thunderbird or something else for actually doing my mail. There are a...