Martin came by and updated us on Imperium Renewables today (nee Seattle Biodiesel). Sounds like they are hitting on all cylinders, man I wish I’d been smart enough to invest.

* “No Second Chance”:amazon by Harlan Coben. Another great whirlwind mystery by coben. Man no one writes an airline reading book like this guy. * “Guerilla Warfare”:amazon by Che Guevara. Interesting as a historical read, insight into the thinking of a very influential figure in the americas. Uplifting in many ways, a strong advocate for the people, and very anti-terrorism – contrast with the revolutionaries in the news these days. I faced a dilemma when I finished this book – i travel with light paperbacks and usually leave them sitting in the airport or hotel, hoping that they will find their way into the hands of another reader rather than collecting dust on my shelves. But dropping a book named “Guerilla Warfare” in an airport, a book which includes pictures on how to modify a rifle to launch Molotov cocktails – well I figured it would freak someone out and have some probability of causing some crazy law enforcement scramble. So I threw it in the trash sadly. * “Manhunt”:amazon by James L Swanson. Great accounting of Booth’s actions and escape. If he hadn’t broken his leg jumping to the stage, he’d have escaped and wouldn’t that have been dramatic.

If I were going to college today, I’d be studying materials science. In fact I’ve been looking at online master’s degree programs – UW and Columbia both have interesting programs. A better use of my time than Oblivion.

I’d be studying materials science because things like the following fascinate me:

* Batteries that recharge in seconds – ScienCentral Video News: Super Battery * Massive increases in data density on disks – heat-assisted data storage * Just because you can make them – gold buckyballs

An interesting experiement – The Furrygoat Experience: Virtualization (Portable XP?) – someone is going to figure out the consumer use scenario for VM technology and make a lot of money. The ideas of portability, disposability, malware resistance are so powerful and so relevant for the broad consumer market.

* I thought someone had been moving things on my desk when I was not around but now I know what is really happening – Variable physical laws * I am not sure a 1000 HP ethanol viper is really what the greens had in mind * Art museums here we come – How to get your kid into a better college

• Using Lala a lot these days! We’re investors, but I do love it.
• The IETab plugin for firefox is a requirement if you use OWA. Awesome.
• Trying out google browser sync…
• Carbonite – love the idea and the team is very responsive. They don’t support USB-attached drives for business reasons which is kind of a bummer. But the app does seem to work well.
• Windows Vista user accounts – probably the only software feature of vista that is a “must have” for me. I run all our machines in user mode today and it is a pain in the ass.

A VC: Productivity Apps In The Cloud – “Except all of Microsoft’s editors, including the flagship editor Word, lack the simple functionality of being able to edit and save directly on the web. And as I sit here dreaming about being able to use Google Spreadsheet, that is the one function I want.”

Me too. I use half a dozen machines regularly, i use kiosk machines, I want all my docs everywhere. And I don’t need all the features of high-end office apps. Writely is fine for me, I am sure an online spreadsheet will be good enough too. And I am so tired of installing software on machines.

EDSBS ? MYLES BRAND IN ACTION: DREW TATE GETS SCAH-REWWWED. – more dubious behaviour from the NCAA.

• Carbonite sounds awesome – nice find Chris. I am going to install tomorrow.
• Great tip – how to unblock attachments in Outlook
• Comodo Personal Firewall – pcmag likes it
• Companionlink for Google Calendar – sounds cool I think…I’d like to be able to share my bberry calendar with others in family
• Wridea looks nice – yet another web2.0 service for you to try rich
• Tipmonkies guide to all google services – in case you want to live an all-google life

NetworkGarage.com: Network Magic Wins PC World’s Best of 2006 Award – nice work guys, congrats.

We’re adding a household employee and I need to find a service/software to manage payroll – cut checks, handle all the tax filings, year end 1040s, etc etc etc. At first glance here is what I am finding:

• Paycycle gets a good review in PCMag and is paying to be at the top of google listings
• Surepayroll gets a decent review as well but seems to cost a lot more.
• ADP has a small business offer but I suspect overkill. Ditto Peachtree
• Buyerzone seems to have a lead gen system that will generate quite a few quotes from outsourcing services. Hesitate to try, I don’t want a blizzard of annoying email. And there is supplier-match, they are an affiliate of buyerzone, so I guess I pay two fees effectively to get a referal? crazy.
• I am sure the quickbooks solution is adequate but I don’t really want to install software.
• I am not sure how 10dollarpayroll differs from paycycle but anyone who uses the blink tag (or the moral equivalent) in 2006 is off my list.
• Payrollpayroll – I guess they really really know know their their payroll payroll stuff stuff.

I am sure my accountant can recommend some local service providers too. Has anyone used paycycle?

* “Manifold: Origin”:amazon by Stephen Baxter. Read this to complete a trilogy by the author, speculating on the future of our race. Some great ideas but some massively dull narrative, and characters I just didn’t care about. Yawn. After this I needed to raise my sights a little. * “The Bridge of San Luis Rey”:amazon by Thornton Wilder. Wonderful book. Makes you want to run to Peru. The bittersweetness of a colonial capital really comes thru – the center of local society, but longs to be respected by the mother society half a world away. The characters and outcomes are oh so human. * “The Stranger”:amazon by Camus. Certainly a strong story. A strong lesson about failure to commit to and connect with the world. A little harder to connect with than San Luis Rey – it is much harder to put yourself in the lead character’s shoes.

And I didn’t read it yet but was motivated by this review to order Sahara Overland – sounds fascinating.

Our family room PC died this morning. Needed a new one in a hurry – this is a mission critical PC at home. I usually build my own or order from a boutique oem but no time, so out to the closest stores – compusa, office depot, best buy, finally fry’s. The first 3 didn’t have any small form factor quiet PCs. Fry’s had an HP 7410 – small form factor, quiet, $529, Windows XP MCE. Seemed like a fine deal.

The ensuing 4 hours getting it running were painful. And it all comes down to the economics of the business that Microsoft has created and that the big PC OEMs promulgate. At these price points, the OEMs aren’t making enough money to make it worth their while, so they spend an extraordinary amount of effort trying to get you to part with more money post-purchase, and they work hard to collect bounties from various service and software providers.

As a result, you have to wade thru literally hours of crap to get the pc in a reasonable state. Of course there is all the normal Microsoft registration and activation upfront. Then you have to wade thru the HP screens pitching you on an extended warranty offer. Then you have to wade thru HP screens pitching you on internet access offers even though you are already on the internet, dammit. Then you have to register with HP and give them permission to update your computer and spam you with various alerts and notifications (which are probably designed to extract more money from you).

Then you get to activate the Symantec suite that is on the box, which expires in 60 days. I’ll get another chance to give HP and Symantec money in 2 months.

Once you are thru all this chattering you get to your Windows desktop finally. Where you find a trial version of Microsoft Money. Of Quicken. Of Microsoft Office. Of Rhapsody and all its attendant software. AOL. AOL Music. AOL Latino. Ebay (is this software or just a link to ebay? I’m not clicking). MSN. MSN Encarta. Easy Internet Signup (didn’t I already deal with this?). HP Extended Service Plans (Ditto). HP Photosmart. Netscape. Snapfish. A jillion trial games, powered by Wildtangent – I imagine you have to pay to get full versions, but again I’m not clicking.

This is all splattered all over the desktop, the quickstart bar, and some of it on the icon bar – why does symantec need two notification icons? Oh and the java runtime is installed and immediately updates itself, and offers to install the google desktop and toolbar for you.

Of course your home page for IE is set to Netscape, oh joy.

You have to wade thru and delete most of this crap, and of course there is nothing preinstalled that I really need – like the huge set of Windows Updates I have to immediately download – 32 of them. Or the drivers for my existing mouse and keyboard – microsoft brand. Another half hour or more of futzing around to get all this right.

Basically the pc business model as promulgated by ms and big name oems is corrupt. To make ends meet, the oems resort to all this crap that is the moral equivalent of spam – I didn’t ask for it, it isn’t explained at purchase time, I never gave anyone permission to slam it all over my system.

I’d rather pay a honest price up front for a system that respects me and is truly personal. No wonder apple is resurgent.

From Marginal Revolution, this NYT article on how hard it is to climb the career ladder if you start low, and how starting positions vary by graduation year.

What would I do with this info if I was a college student? Obviously work hard to find a great entry position. But also consider the strategy of moving graduation date out a year or going to grad school if the job market is weak – this has always been a choice, here is some data to back it up.

• Jon Udell discusses web-based presentation software. S5 continues to intrigue me, if someone ran a hosted S5-like service I think i’d dump powerpoint
• Mobile Seatguru now available. cool.
• World of Warcraft the new golf? I kind of doubt it.
• Jungledisk – using amazon’s s3 as a backup service. way cool.
• WinSCP – the best FTP client? I’ve been happy with filezilla but..
• URGE launches – so far it seems reasonable…going to sign up this weekend for a subscription