Microsoft's True Opt-In

Microsoft announced a release date for Windows 10 recently (July 29th) and rolled out their free update program as well.  Current users of Windows 7 or 8/8.1 will have one year to claim their free update to Windows 10, after that they will have to purchase a update.  

I received the little windows icon in my tray yesterday telling me to "Get Windows 10", so of course I clicked it.  I clicked through their info screen and was ready to put in my email so they could confirm my "reservation", when I noticed the omnipresent advertising/marketing opt-in was unchecked by default!  

Many (most?) software companies leave this box checked and hope that you won't think to change it so they can get your "permission" to send you junk email or install some other, probably unwanted, program along with the primary one.  (I'm looking at you, Adobe.)

I just thought that it was admirable that Microsoft took the high road and didn't rope users into opting in to even more junk email that they don't need and won't read anyway.  Thanks!

Doodle a Drive-in or D-Day?

I love Google's occasional doodles on their homepage, and I love the evolution from the early, simple ones to the latest HTML5 craziness.  But I've never really understood how they have chosen which historical occasions and figures to represent.

For example, today, June 6, is the anniversary of D-Day, the day in 1944 that Allied troops stormed the Nazi held beaches of southern France and began the eventual push towards victory in World War II.  9,000 Allied soldiers were killed or wounded.  It was kind of a big deal.

But on the Google homepage today there is an homage to the first drive-in movie theater, which opened on the same date in 1933.  Really neat presentation and very well done, but the gravity of the events aren't the same.



That being said, while D-Day 1944 was a great victory for our side, a bunch of people lost their lives and I'm sure it wasn't a pretty picture.  The opening of the first drive-in movie theater, on the other hand, is a shoe-in for awesome, lite-hearted remembering for those old enough and exploration for those too young to have ever been.

And I love drive-in movies and the culture that they represent, so I'm definitely not unhappy with their selection.  But maybe Google will do something D-Day related to the 80th anniversary in 2014.  I hope they do.

Ford's 999cc of Awesome!

Ford's new global engine for the Focus and Fiesta (as well as several other Euro Fords) looks to be one of the coolest pieces of automotive engineering from any company in a long time.

The Fuel Economy of New Hybrid Small Cars, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, is pretty good.  The best of the bunch, of course, is the 2012 Toyota Prius 1.8L at 50 miles per gallon combined city and highway.  That's good, but the other cars in that class range from just 34 (Honda CR-Z) to 44 (Honda Civic Hybrid) combined MPG.

And while these 40+ MPG small cars will help you save at the pump, the hybrid system is still heavy on the scales and on the pocket book, making these cars significantly less fun to toss around in the curvies and to write that payment check to your bank every month.  Under ideal conditions, disregarding maintenance costs, and with a pretty cheap hybrid Civic, you would still have to drive over 86,000 miles to pay for the hybrid option in gas savings.  Many people who buy new cars will never keep them that long (especially in a hybrid when you have to pay for new batteries at around 70k, yikes!), and therefore should not spend the extra cash, just to satisfy their green enviro guilt.

But I didn't start writing this post to bash on hybrids.  If that's what you gotta do to sleep at night, you go right ahead. ;)  What I wanted to write about is Ford's miniature new powerplant for their smaller cars.  It's simply a marvel of engineering and the most power-dense engine Ford has ever produced.

Ford's new 1.0L EcoBoost three-cylinder.  Kinda close to nuclear fusion efficiency.  (Photo: Ford)

The mini marvel I'm talking about is the new for 2012 (2014 in the States) 1.0L 125 EcoBoost.  This little thing (the block is about the size of a sheet of notebook paper) packs over two horsepower per cubic inch (which is a whole lot, fyi) and motivates the Focus 5-door to 56.5 combined MPG. That's right, one-point-zero-liters (999cc to be exact), three cylinders, direct injection and a turbo charger can churn out 125HP and 147ft-lb of torque, while still only emitting about 185g of CO2 per mile driven.  Pretty impressive efficiency and a work of engineering.  Its exhaust manifold is even integrated into the head so the hot exhaust can be cooled by the engine coolant to prevent burning up the turbo under part throttle conditions; instead of the current method of cooling them with extra fuel - which is effective, but not very good for mileage.

Read the Ford Focus 1.0 Ecoboost Zetec review at Autocar.co.uk and Motor Trend's 1.0 EcoBoost European Spec First Drive and imagine getting 50 MPG in something that is actually fun to drive.  Then be blown away that this Ford 1.0 is ‘to get 177bhp’ in different trim.

If you read the above linked articles, I'm sure you've gleaned this, but the 1.0 EcoBoost gets the same power as the current 1.6L un-boosted gas engine, a bit less than the U.S. 2.0L (but with the same torque - the stuff you feel in your butt when you accelerate) and crazy, better-than-a-hybrid, good mileage.  I'm sure it won't be a rocket off the line, but the smaller and lighter motor between the front struts should make it nimble and easy to drive through the curves.

Anyway, this motor is Europe only for now, of course, but I can't wait to give one a test drive when they hit our shores.  I'm also curious how our 5,000 foot elevation will effect the turbo motor compared to the serious tole the thin air takes on naturally aspirated motors.

I must not drink enough!

Today, on the anniversary of the beginning of prohibition in 1919, I came across an interesting (if not terribly well written) article in the NYT last week about the prevalence of binge drinking. It makes me look reealllly good.

However, I have two problems with the article, which are below. See if you catch the same things I did, or if I'm totally misinterpreting something.  (My emphasis.)

Binge drinking prevalence increased with household income. About 20 percent of people who earn $75,000 or more annually reported binge drinking. However, the data showed that people with lower incomes tend to binge more frequently and consume more alcohol per sitting.

and

Over all, states with the highest age-adjusted prevalence of adult binge drinking were in the Midwest and New England, and included the District of Columbia, Alaska and Hawaii.

Now, in the first one, they may have meant that a higher proportion of wealthier people binge drink, but of those poor people who do binge drink, they tend to do it more frequently, but they didn't say it very clearly.

The second one has no explanation.

And while I consider the amount of drinking that I do to be on the higher side of what is reasonable for someone of my age, I'm apparently waaay behind the curve.  I don't remember the last time I had nine drinks in a sitting [wait a minute, could that be a correlation?], and I definitely don't do that five times a month!  Sheesh, bunch of drunks out there!  

Reminds me of this exchange from Marketplace Radio just before New Years that finds that walking drunk is 800% more dangerous than driving drunk (per mile traveled).  Worth a listen / read.  

Blog = Domain (Finally!)

As you may or may not have noticed, I finally got my ol' blog moved over to my own domain!  Phew, what a struggle that was.

The process of transforming my "Steaming Pile" blog at http://mnthomp.blogspot.com into "Matt's Maunderings" at www.mnthomp.com is mostly complete.  I need to make some changes to the theme / CSS - pull the title a little closer to the top of the page, move stuff around on the side bar - and add some content - the "about me" page, my photos, feeds, resume, etc. - but it's coming along nicely.  Steaming Pile still may have been a more appropriate name for what I post here, but it doesn't sound very professional or adult.  Although, when you think that I started this whole thing in 2005, it isn't so weird.

***

...So, I thought the process of transferring your Blogspot blog to a domain that I bought through Google and have Apps for Your Domain running on would be easy, quick, and simple.  I was wrong.  Turns out (obviously, in hindsight), that if you have the "Sites" service running on your Apps account, then you can't publish another site on top of it, because sites.mnthomp.com and www.mnthomp.com both point to the same place.  Duh.

Luckily, after a bit of digging (not simple) and some poking around with the domain management setting of my domain host (not easy), it all falls into place.  As soon as the DNS records update (not quick).  These two webpages were invaluable in helping me sort it all out: The Blogger help page "create a subdomain through eNom" (since "www" is actually a subdomain) and the post "Another blog is already hosted at this address" at The Real Blogger Status blog.

This still leaves me with a small question in the back of my mind.  My Apps account and my Blogger account are not the same.  How did Google let me put a Blogger blog attached to account A on a domain that is attached to account B?  I mean, I did have to change some of the domain settings that you shouldn't be able to do without access to both accounts, but they were not major changes.  So could I just start entering random domains into the custom hosting box and see of one takes?  Not sure how that would turn out, but I'm not gonna find out, either.  I'm leaving well enough alone!

Oh, NPR

You're still "National Palestinian Radio," aren't you?  I thought you had changed for the better -- moved towards the "center," if you will -- over the last couple of years.  Apparently it's all been an elaborate liberal hoax. 

As a relatively regular NPR (KUNC, more specifically) listener, I am well aware of their biases.  The editorial content is obviously to the left, but the straight news coverage has gotten much better than it was in the past.  The slant still shows up in the choices of stories they choose to cover and the depth / airtime each one gets.  Just how many puffy human interest stories can you throw into an hour of programming and still consider it "news?" 

Maybe it's more of a DC / East Coast bias towards that kind of thing that us out here in the West just aren't enlightened enough to understand. But with today's firing encouraged resignation of National Public Radio's president and chief executive, Vivian Schiller, and the accelerated resignation of their head fundraiser, (unrelated) Ron Schiller, over statements he made to a conservative activist, it's pretty clear that the liberal bias started at the top and trickled down.  Reaganomics style.  ;)

If they just could have kept their mouths shut over the Juan Williams thing last fall and quietly lobbied to keep their federal funding, it's likely none of this would have happened. 

Speaking of "public" broadcasting, -- NPR, PBS, etc -- what exactly makes it so public?  Other than the fact that some small portion of our tax dollars funds it, what makes it all that different than most other stations?  It's not commercial free, as they would like you to believe.  There are plenty of underwriting sponsors who have their copy read allowed several times an hour.  It's not public like a park where anyone can join the party.  It's a huge broadcasting corporation, just like CNN or Fox News.  So-called "community" radio is the closest most people can get to having their opinions and musical choices on the air, and they're in way more financial trouble than your local NPR affiliate station.  I'm still not sure that public broadcasting should be defunded though, if only for the sake of those local stations.  Maybe a little reshuffling of assets is in order. 

All of that being said, I will still probably be listening to NPR as I drive to work most days.  Partly because I don't need to hear about Denver traffic when I'm driving around Northern Colorado, partly because KUNC has got to be one of the best run NPR stations around [in spite of one unfortunate recent event], but mostly because I know enough to see the bias - and raise it some common sense. 

Fort Collins Brewfest Preview 1

I know lots of people are dissapointed with the new format the 21st Annual Fort Collins Brewfest (officially the Colorado Brewers' Festival 2010) has taken. Even more are discouraged by the new price structure. I've got a little bit of inside knowledge on the subject, and I'd like to share my thoughts.

Regarding the new structure:

• I am going to really enjoy being on the grass at Civic Center Park and not on the scorching asphalt of downtown.
• I'm also going to enjoy getting to talk to the brewers about the beer being served.
• I'm going to like not having to choke down something crappy that I dropped a $2 token on.
• And I'm really going to like not running out of $2 tokens and having to wait in line again!
• Did I mention the grass? Just checking.

Here's my take on the pricing:

• I thought $35 presale and $45 at the gate was too much. $25 presale is much more reasonable.
• It's really easy to spend $25 at the liquor store and not even get to try three decent beers. Even at a well stocked bar like Old Chicago you'll drop $3 to $5 per beer and get to try five to seven beers. But if you buy and drink seven pints of beer, you're going to be totally tanked and not have any clue what the last four beers tasted like. And if you buy a $9 six-pack and it sucks, you're stuck with five beers you don't want to drink.
• At Brewfest, you get unlimited samples of over fifty of the best beer that Colorado has to offer. If you like one, get another! If it sucks, pitch it! And unlike the Great American Beer Fest, which costs over twice as much, you get a 4 oz sample, not some puny 1 oz joke.
• Also important to consider with regards to pricing is the fact that Brewfest is not a charity event. Brewfest is where the DBA makes most of the money it takes to put on all the other great events for the rest of the year. I know it's a straw man, but if you don't go to Brewfest, you're taking away Christmas from some kid. ;)
• Finally, in previous years I usually spend over $20 on entry and beer, and when I was done, I rode my tipsy ass home. This year there's going to be great live music to sober up to. I'd say that's worth $5.

Just my take. You may disagree, and that's fine, but Brewfest is still Brewfest, and it's still going to be tons of fun for all of us who go.

***

Now, onto the beer!

I decided to pour some Dale's Pale Ale from Osark Blues into the 4 oz taster and give it a go. First off, four ounces is suprisingly satisfying. Secondly, and more importantly, it's easy to see how America's first hand-crafted canned beer has won so many awards. It has a really nice, deep amber color and very good head retention.  It's 6.5% ABV and 65 IVB, so it let you know who's the boss when you take your first sip. I'm not sure which variety of hops are used, but it's not quite as citrusy as, say, Odell's IPA, but it's nice and bitter with a good body that keeps the pucker-factor in check. I give it an "A".

Berlin Wall vs Sesame Street

Or, "Can you show me how to get; how to get to West Germany?"

I know Google is not required to agree with me on their choice of homepage logo doodles for a particular day, but doesn't the fall of the Berlin wall on this day twenty years ago seem a little bit more significant than the fortieth anniversary of the Sesame Street show?

Could be just me, I suppose.

Because "He is Latino," eh?

So when Democrats choose (behind closed doors, of course) to exclude an otherwise qualified individual from a U.S. Supreme Court nomination because "he is Latino" it's totally acceptable, but when Republicans raise valid concerns about a Latina's potentialy dangerous opinions, statements, and actions, they're racists and sexists.

Read for yourself how congressional democrats borked president Bush's Supreme Court nominee Miguel Estrada in a November 7, 2001 memo to Senator Durbin:

"The groups singled out three--Jeffrey Sutton (6th Circuit); Priscilla Owen (5th Circuit); and Caroline [sic] Kuhl (9th Circuit)--as a potential nominee for a contentious hearing early next year, with a [sic] eye to voting him or her down in Committee. They also identified Miguel Estrada (D.C. Circuit) as especially dangerous, because he has a minimal paper trail, he is Latino, and the White House seems to be grooming him for a Supreme Court appointment. They want to hold Estrada off as long as possible." [My emphasis.]

Wall Street Journal, Saturday, November 15, 2003.

Sounds about like typical Democrat shenanigans to me. The sad part is, the uninformed public will let them get away with it, time and time again.

Who has time to vote for town hall questions? Oh yeah, stoners!

Yesterday, President Obama hosted an online "town hall" campaign stop, er, meeting where he took questions submitted by the public and answered the most popular ones. In addition to the obligatory softball questions, thanks to the winners over at NORML, many of the top rated questions had to do with the legalization of marijuana. As Politico reports:

In this moment of national economic crisis, the top four questions under the heading of “Financial security” concerned marijuana; on the budget, people voted up questions about marijuana to positions 1-4; marijuana was in the first and third positions under “jobs”; people boosted a plug for legalizing marijuana to No. 2 under “health care reform.” And questions about decriminalizing pot occupied spots 1 and 2 under “green jobs and energy.”

Luckily, even though Mr Obama does have some experience in the drug world, he stuck to his political and reasonable guns and answered the question directly: "'The answer is no, I don't think that is a good strategy to grow our economy,' he said, as the audience in the room applauded and joined him in a laugh."

Even though I think that the "War on Drugs" has been an abysmal failure and is really misdirected in its goals and tactics, I am still against the blanket legalization of pot and most other drugs, and this was certainly not the format for it to be addressed. It does seem kinda obvious though that it's the pot-heads that have the time to vote those questions to the top of the list.

Farewell, Dubya

Well, I'm not sure what I can say that hasn't already been said by someone about today's inauguration of our new President, Barack Obama, other than to say, "good luck, and try not to screw up too bad."

To paraphrase on commentator that I recently heard, "Obama is going to be a very activist president. He's going to get a lot done. We're going to enter this administration as a capitalist nation and we're going to leave it as France." I hope he's wrong.

But I'd also like to say something that isn't getting said very much: Thank you, Mr Bush. Thank you for protecting the country after 9-11. Thank you for lowering taxes. Thank you for working towards free trade in the Americas and standing firmly beside Israel in her trials. And farewell.

Wacky weather, Bill like's Bush's carpet, Obama's "tax cuts"

So, today, January 8th, the high temperature was 60 degrees here in Northern Colorado and the low temperature was -60 in Fairbanks, Alaska. I know, Alaska is supposed to be cold, but their normal January lows are closer to -30 and our normal highs are closer to 30. What's up with that? Good luck telling Alaskans that its global warming.

By now you've probably heard or seen former President Bill Clinton at the White House today expressing his love for the rug in the Oval Office. But what you probably didn't know is that that rug was custom designed by Laura Bush and is heading back to Texas with the Bushes very soon. It really is an impressive rug.

You've probably also heard about President-Elect Obama's "$300 Billion Tax Cuts" that he wants congress to pass ASAP. Investor's Business Daily has a good piece examining why these so-called "tax cuts" are nothing more than plain, old income redistribution: taking money from the successful and giving it to the unsuccessful. Rewarding failure does not promote success, it reinforces failure.

Whoo hoo! I'm a statistic!

Initial claims for jobless benefits jumped 32,000 to a seasonally adjusted 516,000 in the week ended Nov. 8, the Labor Department said Thursday.

And I'm one of them. Now if I ever get these so-called "jobless benefits" it'll suck a little less.

Predictions for an Obama Presidency

Some of my predictions now that a majority of American voters were gullible enough to believe the false promises of "hope" and "change" and elect Barack Obama to the most powerful position in the world.

• Unemployment will go to 10% or more
  
• The GDP will shrink
• Gasoline prices will increase
• It will cost more to heat your home
• American manufacturing will loose even more jobs and market share
• More mortgages will go into foreclosure
  
• At least one American auto maker will go bankrupt
• The cost of healthcare will not go down
• The Middle East will become less stable
• Iran will obtain a nuclear device
• Russia will continue to expand it's control inside and outside it's borders
• China and India will not pollute less
• Venezuela, Cuba, and North Korea will not get any friendlier
• Our dependence on foreign oil will only go down because we can no longer afford to pay for it
• "Global Climate Change" will not suddenly stop
• The oceans will not suddenly stop rising
• Etc.
  

Don't get me wrong, some of these things might happen no matter who is in the White House, and maybe, just maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised by Barack the Redistributer's magical ways. But I doubt it.

I wonder of Prozak is one of Wal-Mart's $4 generics... I have the feeling I'm going to need it.

Idiot Obama Supporter Caught On Tape

This woman was apparently really excited after attending an Obama rally recently, and pretty much sums up in a few seconds what is wrong with an Obama presidency and a good chunk of America in general. She says she will vote for Obama because "I won't have to worry about putting gas in my car and I won't have to worry about paying my mortgage," and thanks to YouTube, it's immortalized for all to see.

This kind of thing just boils my blood. That people in America actually feel this way and believe that this is the way things should be just pisses me off.

Glenn Beck's take: "He's going to pay for your mortgage? Not likely---he won't even pay for his Uncle's mortgage (evicted) or his Aunt (living in a Boston slum) or his half brother (who makes $1 per month and lives in Kenya in a hut)."

Note to Obama supporters: Money isn't free. Someone earned that money, and it is wrong for the government for forcibly take it away from them and give it to those who did not earn it. Choices have consequences and words mean things, so while you're hoping for change, I'll be working my ass off to pay for your dumb ass to sit at home and collect welfare.

Biden "guarantees" International Crisis

This may be one of "say it ain't so" Joe Biden's most significant slips of the tongue yet. Yesterday he let it slip that he believes that within six months of Obama's presumptive election the world will test us with an international crisis. He goes on to babble about the "little people" showing the way and ends trying to prop up the utter lack of experience his running mate possesses, but the important part was already out of the bag.

The rest of the world doesn't trust an Obama presidency. The rest of the world looks at an Obama presidency as an opportunity to exploit our new found weakness in leadership and judgement. The rest of the world looks to take advantage of an inept President Obama to further their totalitarian fantasies. I am honestly truly frightened of what an Obama presidency may bring to America and the world.

If you want a little more convincing, listen to these two clips from Glenn Beck's radio show Monday.
YouTube - Glenn Beck Radio - Biden "guarantees" International Crisis
YouTube - Glenn Beck Radio - Biden "guarantees" International Crisis 2
Glenn, as usual in my opinion, goes a little overboard on the fear and conspiracy, but the message remains valid.

Save the world this election. Vote republican.

They're starting to turn...

As the Autumn leaves start to turn from green to yellow, some prominent democrats are turning away from (socialist) Barack Obama:

Top Clinton fundraiser backs McCain over Obama

By ANN SANNER – 18 Sept 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top Hillary Rodham Clinton fundraiser threw her support behind Republican John McCain on Wednesday, saying he will lead the country in a centrist fashion and accusing the Democrats of becoming too extreme.

"I believe that Barack Obama, with MoveOn.org and Nancy Pelosi and Howard Dean, has taken the Democratic Party — and they will continue to — too far to the left," Lynn Forester de Rothschild said. "I'm not comfortable there."

At least some democrats can see where the "post-partisan" Obama campaign is going... all the way to the looney left.  

McCain picks his running mate. His hot, smart running mate!

This morning, Republican Presidential candidate John McCain gave himself a 72nd birthday present and selected first-term Alaska Governor Sarah Palin (say "PAY-lin") as his vice-presidential running mate. I think that was a good choice because she is a reformer, pro-small government, a solid conservative, and a former beauty queen(!) who has been a force to be reckoned with in Alaskan politics since she was elected Governer in 2006. She does lack international experience, but I think she will be a great contrast to career politician Joe Biden, Barack Obama's pick for VP.

This is going to be an interesting couple of months. Just 66 days 'til election day.

Isn't GM was loosing market share? Not in Russia!

Evidently Reuters' Russian correspondent is not terribly familiar with American auto makers, that, or there has been some major restructuring going on that I somehow missed.

In the article "Russians laud size, not fuel economy at car show," published this morning at Forbes.com, Simon Shuster (apparently not the publishing house owned by Viacom- which is spelled differently anyway) seemed to claim that General Motors ("Chevy" to you normal folk) makes both the Jeep Grand Cherokee and the Ford Focus.

...visitors on press day flocked to be photographed in front of GM's Jeep Grand Cherokee...

General Motors, whose fuel-efficient Ford Focus is the best selling foreign car in Russia...

[emphasis mine]

Now, they may do things a little differently over in Mother Russia, and I know they have a bad reputation for copyright, trademark, and patent violations, but I am nearly positive that Chrysler makes the Jeep Grand Cherokee and that Ford makes the Focus. I keep track of this sort of thing.

Silly Ruskies, cars are for capitalists! As is copy editing, apparently.

This week on the web

Here's a mish-mash of stuff that I accumulated over the past week that I mean to blog about, but never got the chance. I may have to start doing this every week, or at least when I think about it. It's kinda like James Taranto's Best of the Web Today on WSJ.com, but not daily, and quite a bit less clever. I may have to start doing this every week, or at least when I think about it.

Still uncomfortable with Obama and his elitist arrogance? You're probably just subtly racist. (link)

Steve Tobak explores the alternative-energy bubble on CNet news. "What, you don't believe that there's an alternative-energy bubble? Then you're just not paying attention." (link)

"With [Moqtada al] Sadr's 'retirement,' we've taken another long stride" towards a irreversable victory in Iraq. (link)

"Coffee Served Right" (wing) at the Conservative Café in Crown Point, Indiana. "Latte-swilling liberals welcome, too." (link) & (link)

"China breaks Olympic promises on rights, media, pollution" -- Are we supprised by this? (link)

Busweiser (Anheuser-Busch)'s takeover by Belgian InBev may have been motivated by European corporate taxes that are nearly half of what Anheuser-Busch payed in America. How does that happen?! (link)

"Suddenly being green is not cool any more" in Britian. (link)

Well, there ya have it. I read and posted those articles, so I think they're probably worth a little bit of your time to read. If you have some time, that is.