Why I wouldnt buy Honda’s FCX Clarity hydrogen car

The zero Emission Sedan of the future is a reality today with its zero emissions and domestic fuel and helps slow increase in greenhouse gases. It is fun to drive and yet smooth and powerful with groundbreaking new fuel cell stack. And its also built with unyielding safety of Six airbags and Vehicle Stability Assist ™ (VSA®) along with Collision Mitigation Braking System ™ (CMBS™). The Honda FCX Clarity debuted in July, and the automaker is leasing about 200 of the cars to customers in Southern California during the next three years. Tens of thousands of car enthusiasts have applied to be among the first to lease.

Yet I wouldn't buy this marvel car due to the reasons below:

* The lack of fueling stations will limit the reach of these vehicles for many years
* No traditional gear selector
* Small electronic shifter near the steering wheel that was awkward to use
* The rear window seemed to limit visibility.
* Some analysts have estimated it would cost $200,000

The Clarity, and any hydrogen fuel cell for that matter, has plenty of question marks and hurdles. But it gives us a sense of what lies ahead.

Xohm delivers WiMax 4G speed in Baltimore

It was in the Italian Job, a Hollywood action flick starring Charlize Theron, who was streaming live to a laptop computer. Speed: about 3 megabits a second. Sprint is about to find out. Baltimore recently became the first city in the USA to go live with WiMax. Short for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, WiMax is a fourth-generation (4G) wireless technology that can turn whole cities into one big hot spot. Sprint has an even grander vision: It wants to turn the entire USA into a mobile surfing zone. The mobile data network is designed to cater to the needs of mobile laptop users, not cellphone users, for a fee. Because the speeds are so fast — 10 megabits or better, potentially — it could easily be used as a replacement for DSL or cable modem service in the home and office. The service is currently marketed as "Xohm," Sprint's WiMax brand name. That will probably change after the Sprint/Clearwire merger closes.

Enticing SEO plugin from Entrecard - U Drop I Follow

Entrecard has released the U Drop I Follow plugin. This plugin will display your Entrecard widget along with one of the U Drop I Follow badges. The plugin is still in BETA stages but with all the new features it will evolve into a great plugin for everyone. I also hope they will soon have a system in place in which the U Drop I Follow system really does give real droppers a reward for dropping back. With Entrecards new API they should soon have a system where the top droppers get added to the top of the drop list and the lesser droppers get put further down. This system would be still new and may be a while away from being used… But I do hope they will soon have a new sign up form that will help build this. Please download and vote for this plugin here:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-udif-entrecard/

Passport needed to buy mobile phone

Everyone who buys a mobile telephone will be forced to register their identity on a national database under government plans to extend massively the powers of state surveillance.

Phone buyers would have to present a passport or other official form of identification at the point of purchase. Privacy campaigners fear it marks the latest government move to create a surveillance society.

For more details see the source here
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article4969312.ece

AdSense Ads Optimized for Chrome

I had noticed on Chrome broswer, Google now takes into account the “landing page” that the ad links to, and, for example, gives low grades to pages whose sole purpose is to show more ads. Google might just be testing these, but these efforts are starting to get noticed. Instead of a regular text ad, Google served up the search box at left, inviting people to search for specific ads. In effect, Google is saying, “We are not 100% sure what ads you’d like to see, so why don’t you just tell us?” An ad-only search box is a departure from Google’s past policy of showing the most relevant results, with ads on the side. Although it is clearly labeled, some people might still confuse the AdSense search box with a regular Web search box. Others might find it more helpful than the regular text ad links.

Windows Mobile on your iPhone

Call it what you will: immoral, unethical, unholy—it appears that a Norwegian developer by the name of Erik Kristiansen has actually managed to pull off Windows Mobile running on an iPhone. The video of the OS is booting on a 3G is convincing enough, but the extremely bizarre exchange between this “reporter” and Kristiansen at the myPhone2008 conference is enough to bring its validity into question. We shall find out soon enough—Kristainsen claims that the hack is currently in beta with a January release in the works.

Cheapest parking rates in USA

Last time I was at Sycamore, IL, I had noticed that there's at least one place left where it costs just a penny to feed a parking meter.

Welcome to Sycamore, a town of 16,000 in north-central Illinois where parking costs just a penny for 12 minutes. They have the cheapest meters in the U.S. at a penny, nickel, dime.

Officials say a nickel buys an hour of parking time and a dime two hours.

Got a quarter. That gets a whopping 12 hours.

But watch out if the meter expires. And they are the cheapest fine at a quarter, and at a dollar, I still can't find anyone cheaper.

Last month, Sycamore city council voted to quadruple the parking fine for unpaid meters.

It's now a dollar, up from 25 cents.

Here is some more mind-boggling info on Sycamore from the net (not sure how far this is true):
The town is so small that two blocks off the main drag and you are in plowed fields. Their idea of a 4th of July celebration is 4 kids running around the park with sparklers. The motel for one night costs $5.00 and that didn't include breakfast. They still have a village idiot. Some day they might even get big enough for a McDonalds. The local theater is open in the summer and only on weekends. Admission is a nickel,you bring your own chairs and the movie screen is the side of a barn that has been painted white. The local kids still go out sparking on lover's lane when the sheriff is at the movie. Do you realize the 3rd largest city in Illinois is only about 10,000 people and Sycamore doesn't even make the top 1,000 list. So for a fun place to visit this summer go to Sycamore,Il. Living there is cheap. All you have to do is get away from O'hare airport and so west.When you think you are in the middle of nowhere keep going.

Change the look and feel of Gmail

Most of you might be using gmail for your emails. But if you are bored with the old white and blue interface then here is the good news. You can now change the interface for your gmail that will show something like in the screenshot here.

What you need to do for changing gmail interface?

I will write down it in steps below:

1) First of all get Firefox addon called Stylish. You can get it from here.

2) Install stylish to your firefox and it will ask you to restart your firefox.

3) Now you will be able to see a small icon in status bar of your firefox.

4) Go to gmail style page located here.

5) Right click the stylish icon and click on add File to Stylish.

6) Give it some name as newgmail or anything you wish.

7) Clear cache of your firefox by going to Tools >> Clear Private Data.

Start gmail and enjoy.

You can also try the same thing for many other popular sites. To find the styles for those sites visit UserStyles.org

Does Mayan calendar predict a Dec 21, 2012 apocalypse?

Since November, at least three new books on 2012 have arrived in mainstream bookstores. A fourth is due this fall. Each arrives in the wake of the 2006 success of 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, which has been selling thousands of copies a month since its release in May and counts more than 40,000 in print. The books also build on popular interest in the Maya, fueled in part by Mel Gibson's December 2006 film about Mayan civilization, Apocalpyto.

Part of the 2012 mystique stems from the stars. On the winter solstice in 2012, the sun will be aligned with the center of the Milky Way for the first time in about 26,000 years. This means that whatever energy typically streams to Earth from the center of the Milky Way will indeed be disrupted on 12/21/12 at 11:11 p.m. Universal Time.

Watch the popular YouTube video on Signs of the End!

Did Apple install MobileMe without your permission?

If you are on Windows and have installed iTunes 7.7 check your control panel and see if this has happened to you too.