DISQUS

I drive a fuel-efficient car as my main transportation. Always have unless I really need to carry lots of people or stuff. I miss the old car I had that got 45-50 mpg, though. (Of course, I like the AC I have now so there's definitely some trade-offs)

We're also going to be getting a more energy efficient HVAC unit soon. That should help.

I didn't mow the lawn today and I get the feeling my kid is going to hear quite a bit about the topic of the day on a field trip. Other than that - no plans to really do anything for the day. I'm not against helping the environment, but I don't really go out of my way to do something special just for one day.

I was doing a database update and we had renamed some tables in the process, but that was an unknown to me. I generated the sync scripts and ran them. Shortly afterwards, the developer asked where all of his data was. I told him that it was in the table that was just dropped. When he asked about our backups, we found out that the database was not part of the backup scheme. Through lots of digging, we found a backup of the database and were able to get the data back, but it was a pretty painful lesson to learn about the difference between renaming a table and dropping/creating new ones. Not quite as bad as (e.g.) Livejournal.com, but it was something I have no desire to ever repeat.

Realted to this giveaway, I'd love to keep a copy of all of our pictures, videos, etc so we can keep a true offline archive somewhere. We've taken quite a few over the years and I'd hate to lose those.

OK - video is now available. That was kind of strange. Good overview of everything that's offered.

Video no longer available?

Well, I'm not having any major issues with Twhirl - a couple of minor things.

1. Seems after I upgrade that I'll launch Twhirl, minimize (which should go to the tray in Vista 32-bit), and I'll never see an icon in the tray once minimized. Killing the Twirl process and re-starting usually fixes it.

2. May be by design - if I integrate a search into my home page, but then decide not to include it the items are still on my home page. Probably by design, but I decided to follow a search thread that had a LOT of active users on it and I was getting drowned in what they were sending. :)

Probably some of the Wii games. I didn't really get too many movies or any new players. I'd probably also try them on an older DVD or two that didn't seem to work well with our player.

I'm a big fan of the HTC Touch Pro. I appreciate what the iPhone did for the industry, but it's not my personal favorite.

There are a lot of things to choose from and I'm not sure what came out in 2008. I like the increasing availability of devices to capture video quickly, major gains in SSD storage, and the mobile phone market is changing like crazy. My favorite so far is definitely the Fuze and I'm trying to figure out how to save enough to buy one if I don't win. :)

I'd probably copy a bunch of docs for our current mortgage so I can submit them for a future refinance. With the rates dropping regularly, I figure I have a pretty good chance to do that.

I'd also scan in old pictures that were taken on film so I could use them as needed. My kid likes to look at pictures on the computer at times and would get a kick out of some of them.

Hopefully the site will not prompt for a username/password tomorrow. Sounds like a contest I'd like to get in on. :) Still running my 8125 (aka Wizard) - it works, but it's definitely showing its age.

I think Sears is selling the same for $15, but can't remember. Odd what some people will buy. Even stranger that this is made out of plastic. Doesn't that defeat the whole purpose? :)

Heck, I'd just wonder if it works if you are already an AT&T customer, with or without corp discount. I've seen the Tilt for new customers for a really low price, but as an existing customer it seems the best I can do is a refurb unit for $150 if they are ever available again. I'd consider resetting my contract by 2 years, but not signing a new one and switching everything over - that just seems like an unnecessary hassle.

I definitely laughed when I saw this. Not something we would use (or need at the moment), but a funny concept.

My concern is that they'd be traumatized by doing their business and having bells and lights go off that then sets back the whole training business several months.

Now waiting on the Pro from ATT. I really don't want to switch to Sprint. Of course, I'll be saving my money to afford it. It does make desiring a Tilt kind of futile.

Any news on whether or not this supports the higher capacity MicroSD cards? (4GB+)

Um, yeah. Download is an option, but I've love to see the justification in front of a judge if you do it without paying for the movie. "But, downloading is better for the environment so it's not really immoral." Gimme a break. It's still copyright infringement, no matter how environmentally friendly it may or may not be.

Now, I can definitely see building up a library on my PC and using that instead of discs. I can see using NetFlix or Blockbuster, or RedBox - especially if the rental places are on the way to/from work or similar. I can also see owning certain movies. I still think this particular idea is just another effort by a dying system trying to squeeze what it can from the consumers. I also seem to remember the last time this was tried, the discs didn't work properly and died unevenly or too soon - I'm assuming that's gotten better.

FWIR - DivX was a "phone-home" system. You needed a player connected to a phone line to verify your right to play the movie. The actual compression technology for video is pretty useful, though - allowing a regular DVD to compress down easily to CD size with no appreciable quality loss to most people. There was a competitor to DivX that did this before and it just didn't work too well.

In other news - any word of how well this tech is selling? That would be interesting.

Some passwords/PINs are only used for one thing and I've been using it for so long that I've got it memorized.

Passwords - depends on the site. There are definitely throwaway sites that I don't really care too much about and am not creative. Banking and similar have tended to be variations on a theme. :(


Already have ListPro and appreciate that - good way to organize tasks and shopping lists. I use it most often for trips to the store and running errands to ensure I'm not forgetting anything.

Reminds me of some of the early days of WinCE where one "developer" came up with a new set of "apps" just about every day. All free, but all just about equally useless. The only thing that could be said was that it was driving up the app count for WinCE to approach the number of apps for Palm. The good part was that these were hosted on his own site, not through a store like Handango so no wading through the apps to separate good from bad (at least those bad apps).

And yes, the author noted that the marketplace will eventually put the prices where they need to be. And I happen to agree that if you want a particular app, you are probably "forced" to wade through a lot of bad apps to find what you're looking for. (Not as in gun held to head, but as in no other way to perform said task.)

Well, mine was an attempt to send. I triple checked the number, but it just disappeared and have no clue what happened. All I know for sure is that the recipient never received it. I saw the requirement for custom cover sheets to ensure routing to my box. I haven't tried that. I was hoping for an easy send solution along with everything else, but unless things have changed, this is not it. :)

The rest looks intriguing and really easy to use. Just wish that some things had a little more explanation or support.

I tried their "fax" option and it never got to its destination. Just a warning if anyone is planning to try that out. No status updates, either - just "send" and hope that it goes through. Would have been nice if it had worked.

I can't think of a single reason to buy one of these disks. DivX tried something similar and it bombed. This concept was introduced a while ago and vanished for a while. I just don't see why I'd pay $5 for a movie to self-destruct, possibly even before I get a chance to watch it all the way through. It would be even worse if part of the disk got dark faster than another part and it was right in the middle of the movie or at the end. Hopefully this goes the way of the dodo quickly and people realize that consumers want _less_ DRM and other copy-protect measures, not _more_. It's past time for companies to move into the 21st century and this is not a move in that direction.

Just have to chime in on the gas-station bit. Apparently just a little south of where I am, a gourmet chef opened up a restaurant in a gas station. Supposedly at lunch time, you can't park anywhere near the place. I need to get the name/location again, but it's in the DFW Metroplex somewhere near Watauga.

Don't really have anything else to contribute, but thought that this ties in a little.

You're hitting us pretty hard lately, Tony. Another great thought shared. Now to actually apply it....

Good point on the "For us" vs. "For people who need to hear the message" ministries. I don't think I even want to look at our list right now. I have a pretty strong guess which way the scales would tilt. :(

I can say that we ditched our VBS this year in an attempt to try something different to reach unchurched kids. I don't know how well it's working, but it's something that I'm glad we're trying. Bring on more of that and I think we'll be moving in the right direction.

I don't have a 3G phone. I can't imagine the sort of usage I'd need to have to get to 3 GB on it. :)

@mikeya - if this comes out through AT&T and they hold true to form, there will be a version without the camera.

@raymond - the biggest thing I would like is not to have to pay another $400+ for this phone under a two year contract. I know I can get a TyTN II under contract for $150 (special rate as an existing customer - new customers get them for $0 after rebate through some sources). I will say that this phone is probably worth it for me, though. Just have to wait until it's out. However, I think I'll be upgrading to something with 3G in the not too distant future, if just to allow me to connect to the Internet through my laptop in those rare times I need to. I can do it now, but it's SLOW.

Drool. Man, now the question becomes one of upgrading to a TYTN II in the near future or hoping my Wizard can hold on until this is released. Quite awesome specs and the look is just nice.

And I agree, this looks kind of like the TyTN III.