GearBitsTech. Culture. Ideas. Opinions.National Speed Limit is Simply...Unamerican!- July 6, 2008 A screwball Senator is proposing a national speed limit to save gas. That's a bizarre suggestion for this country, which is infamous for its willingness to just let market forces work things out. No, instead, we should just tax the heck out of gasoline and let people decide how fast they can afford to go...if they can afford to go at all. Or better yet, let's take those tax revenues and actually invest in public transportation infrastructure. If we also reward good local development...http://www.gearbits.com/archives/2008/07/national_speed.html Fox News Achieves New Low- July 5, 2008 Apparently, Fox News is dead set upon further distancing itself from all "truthiness." According to the Silicon Alley Insider, it has begun doctoring photos to make people it doesn't like appear uglier, stranger, and unlikable. Here's an example: So they removed some of his hair, stretched his head, gave him black circles under his eyes, and yellowed his teeth. Sheesh...and to think there are still people who believe Fox News is a legitimate journalistic endeavor. Read the...http://www.gearbits.com/archives/2008/07/fox_news_achiev.html Soccer Dad Obama- July 3, 2008 While I'm not into reality TV shows or paparazzi-style reporting, it is tremendously refreshing to see a political candidate living his life...or, rather, living that part of his life he seems to share so many of the rest of us. Watch this short video on CNN about the Obamas at their daughter's soccer game and I think you'll agree they seem more like your typical American family than nearly any other major politician in recent memory.http://www.gearbits.com/archives/2008/07/soccer_dad_obam.html The Upside of $4 Gasoline- July 3, 2008 Time.com has positively deviated from the typical "gas prices are awful, aren't they" approach most journalists take when writing about the fuel situation. Instead of adding to the incessant yammering about how life is going down the crapper because of $4 gas, they decide to highlight 10 positives that might come about because of it: Globalized jobs return home Sprawl stalls 4-day work weeks Less pollution More frugal use of transportation Fewer traffic deaths Cheaper car...http://www.gearbits.com/archives/2008/07/the_upside_of_4.html Should I Fix My Wife's TiVo- July 2, 2008 So, apparently, while we were on vacation a couple weeks ago, the landline modem in my wife's TiVo died...again! Her TiVo is a Series 1...one of the original Philips models (apparently, they featured ultra-crappy modems). It has a lifetime subscription on it, so it's tough for me to just chuck it (and I doubt anybody is going to want to buy it). If this was our only TiVo, there would be no debate...it would be fixed (actually, it would have already been fixed...my wife loves her TiVo as..http://www.gearbits.com/archives/2008/07/should_i_fix_my.html My Apple Airport Extreme Base Station Woes- July 1, 2008 I apologize for the recent 3 days of GearBits.com outage. The cause was my shift from an old Netgear 802.11g routeraccess point to a shiny new Apple Airport Extreme 802.11n router. The problems were several, but suffice to say that the main unresolved issue lays in the AE's inability to suck down DHCP information from my ISP. Is it the AE's fault or my ISP's fault I don't know...it just doesn't work. So, after figuring that out and entering in all the data manually, I now have to reset.http://www.gearbits.com/archives/2008/06/my_apple_airpor.html |