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The built in magnetometer (compass) on the Droid is used in apps like Google Sky Map and street level navigation.

The sensor provides information to the Droid about how the position of the phone is changing, useful when GPS is static.

Google Sky Map is an app that uses this to plot a real-time perspective of heavenly bodies. It works inside and out because it uses the strong magnetic force of the earth to orientate.

Google's street level navigation uses the compass to give you perspective when standing in one place.

Other sensors detecting gravity, an accelerometer, proximity and ambient light give app developers tools to develop interesting ways for us to interact with our environment.

And there there are several compass apps you can download from the Android Market if you just want to look at a compass.

Aside from your hand or pocket, there are two ways to carry a Motorola Droid available from the Verizon store.

One is a hard plastic snap in holster where one face of the phone is exposed and the other a horizontal leather holster.

The open face holster warns to place phone face in to prevent scratching it. Personally, I worry more about a scuffed camera lens. A scratched face is usable.

The horizontal solution lacks a belt clip that locks and unless you are fat the brunt of shock to the phone will twist it over your hip bone. It leaves no room for a waist belt lens system.

I needed a padded, secure case that is water resistant (a flap), a belt clip that won't come off when you are crawling and a vertical pull out so that the phone is grabbed securely on the longest side. This makes it less likely to get dropped.

The generic holster websites are swarming with holsters "specifically for the Droid", but many have magnetic closures. Many of these sites combine BlackBerry holsters with Droid.

A magnetic closure on a Blackberry automatically puts it to sleep, while on the Droid it puts it into a docking mode, something that is directly opposite of what you want to accomplish with a holster - prevent drain of the battery.

I found a generic case at Target today that works perfectly for the purpose. It says Golla on the case and is probably for an iPhone, but they are the same size.

As an added measure of lens protection, I sewed in the cleaning cloth you get with the screen protectors, as eventually the nylon in the case will damage the lens surface.

The morning started with a last minute do or die! (in my mind) trial of live streaming from the Droid.

It worked!

At first, our web platform wouldn't update the code embed fast enough, but our graphics editor Chris Glass took the risk and let the update cook. After awhile, I started seeing positive comments in my twitter feed scrolling across the viewfinder of the phone in Qik and I knew something was happening.

Live streaming from a phone, while using voice on another phone to communicate with the office, is somewhat awkward taking into account that the live microphone is on the first phone. I think we will communicate via the twitter feed layer in the future.

And then former York Daily Record correspondent Greg Gross walked by and said to me, "I saw that on the YDR site and it looks good". He later said that it wasn't buffering and jerky like live cams usually are.

Later in the day

I had several photos on my desktop and asked Brad Jennings, my photo editor, to pick.

I had provided one photo from the Droid for a web update earlier in the day. Brad picked the Droid photo among others from a Nikon D2HS.

It's nice to capture a moment, once!

I have been using a BlackBerry Storm (3.2 MP with an excellent camera and powerful flash) for about a year for still web update photos. Before the BlackBerry, I used a Samsung Flipshot (3 MP) and before that a Samsung SCH-A990 (3.2 MP).

It saves time not booting up a laptop and a photo can be published in a few minutes from camera to website.

The (5 MP) still image that comes out of the Droid opens in Photoshop as a 2592x1936, 14 MB, 300 px/in image.

The live stream was in the 480 pixel range using Verizon's 3G. Different size streams can be obtained depending on the service and using WiFi over 3G.

paulkuehnel: Three photos from same shoot r on desktop, 2 r from Nikon D2HS, editor picks #droid pix. Open in PSD saz 14.4 MP http://twitgoo.com/55ush

paulkuehnel: First live video feed from #droid & vz 3G to ydr.com someone walked by and said it looked good. I was just happy it worked.

It's a moment in a journalist's career akin to watching the first man walk on the moon.

Someone FINALLY made a cell phone, an operating system and combined it with a wireless network that can reliably stream acceptable live video that isn't the size of a postage stamp.

The video in itself isn't that great, but the first "photograph" in 1839 wasn't too great either by today's standards. It sure beat sitting for a painting.

Next comes refinement and integration into our Brightcove video platform.

On Monday, Brightcove will release a massive upgrade supporting a native video player on the iPhone.

So Droid and the iPhone might be able to play together in the near future.

There are a few solutions for replacing that bulky live TV truck with Android, your 3G data connection and a streaming Flash window embedded in a web page.

I tested Qik, Bambuser and Ustream.tv

All three apps worked well interfacing with the Motorola Droid running Android 2.0.

All three offer some form of interfacing with social networks and manual embedding.

For me it came down to which service streamed the best and gave the largest picture. Qik was the only service that worked well at the time of testing.

Of course, none of my testing is scientific. The results could have varied due to many things at the time of testing.

Qik embeds as a single stream and the flash window turns into an archived copy, while Ustream.tv embeds as a specific channel and the window lets the viewer know that it has the potential of being a live stream. Ustream.tv also has a revenue share plan.

Exciting concept! More testing and a work flow to come.

Broadcasting Live with Ustream.TV

Some testing today of live streaming and a Droid photo zoomed in from a moving car.

paulkuehnel: Deaf & partially blind, she likes to help people and listen to their problems. Reads their lips & prays for them http://twitgoo.com/54tmp

paulkuehnel: Come 2 the conclusion: there are 2 droid reviews. 1 by iPhone users who want it 2 b an iPhone & those who dnt have an iPhone and like it.

Life is easy today not worrying about a king lopping off your ear or a day in the stocks.

It's the time of year we remember York's role in adopting the Articles of Confederation.

There are many apps in the Android Market for podcasting. I choose Google Listen first because I want to understand the philosophy behind Google's push into the smartphone business.

Once telling a friend how much I enjoyed podcasts using a BlackBerry Storm, he seemed surprised thinking that people could only receive podcasts though the iTunes store.

Actually "podcasting" or rather the idea of streaming programmed content has been around since the AM radio was invented and people gathered around a wooden box with glowing tubes to hear a favorite program. Eventually, portable AM radios made this programming mobile.

Using the app Podtrapper, on my Blackberry, I downloaded and cached podcasts over the wireless connection after going down a static list in the app or entering in a URL that I obtained from a search engine.

Once it was set up, the phone updated automatically. It was my self-contained portable transistor AM radio, only I was the station programmer.

Google's Listen podcasting app begins as a search, then you can stream and cache the programs all from the phone.

Once you find a podcast you like, the podcast falls into the directory and automatically updates as new podcasts appear in the series. You can also search by most popular and most popular term searches. Your search terms are saved as bookmarks.

Updated podcasts will stream from one to the next in your updated series.

Closing the program leaves you right where you left off in a particular podcast.

You can obtain more (previous) episodes from a single touch.

You can add a URL from a podcast found in the wild.

Listen has pulled me out of my box of podcast listening because the search and play is so convenient and all from the handset.

The search begins with podcasts most recently updated so you aren't wasting time looking at something that hasn't been updated in 300 days.

Listen turns podcasting on your Droid into a live feed for podcasts, updating what you like and giving you a quick mobile sample of the latest of what the world has to offer.

It's interesting to watch the evolution of Google and how they plan to extract revenue out of "free".

Open source operating system, open app development for the masses, and free services... and along comes Google AdSense.

I received an automatic update push this morning to my handset for an update of a free app I like called Taskiller.

Taskiller is very useful on a multitasking phone. After a day, you realize just how many programs are running and Taskiller provides a quick list, quick kill of apps running in the background.

This particular upgrade came with a notification of an AdSense beta roll-out. There will be an option to pay for an ad free version.

The Android Market already runs a rotating ad on the home page.

I can vote on Google's concept after a detailed description, whether I think this is a good or bad idea.

Working in a business where advertising fuels my paycheck, I voted GOOD!

It's a warm fuzzy, for a jaded consumer like me, when a huge corporation asks my opinion before moving ahead.

Using twitvid.com as a video service off of twitroid on Droid provides the choice of two different mobile stream sizes along with the Flash that comes up on desktop browsers for the same link.

A cool universal feed for directly posting twitter videos from Android phones. The Flash page also includes an embed for the flash video.

Allows downloading and posts Droids HD video.

paulkuehnel: Liking twitvid.com it builds a mobile non-flash video feed in two different sizes for mobile viewing for drect feeds into twitter droid

The free turn-by-turn navigation on the Droid is familiar Google Maps unleashed as a mobile navigation tool.

This evolution for turn-by-turn navigation incorporates Google's street view photos that move along with you real-time.

Using a button on the navigation screen, you can toggle between the map view and the street level view that follows you along with important details from the the map layers. Tiny pop-up bubbles appear to give you evolving information about your streets.

You can also swipe your finger across the screen and see around you, change elevation and zoom forward in the street view.

You can request a search by voice recognition.

"Maps of restaurants" will give you restaurants in your GPS location; a map of push pins to explore as well as a directory with star ratings and links.

You can also navigate from a point on the map of your choosing. Look over the map and touch the location. Great if you can't find an address and want to just look at a map and point.

Route searches include transit maps, pedestrian route and traffic condition updates.

There is also a list of turn by turn directions for those who prefer running their brains in manual.

The updates and reroutes have updated without lag over the week I've been using it. The maps have this soothing, liquid transition about them leading you to believe that there is some nice buffering in place, but the reroutes are also immediate leading me to believe there is a good network in place.

The voice is adjustable from the phone's media volume toggle and is amply loud and crisp.

There is also a suction cup windshield mount available as an accessory, that places (it's a magnet) the phone in the mobile mode and alters it's function for driving.

While using the phone for navigation without the mobile cradle, notifications from your multitasking operations continue to come in as a vibration and the subtle blue blinking LED status light.

My monthly cost for using this smart phone is actually $10 less than my previous smart phone due to the fact that I don't pay for navigation now.

Look for this navigation in other phones running Android 2.0.

Free and excellent are a good combination.

The U.S. Army has contracted two bridges made from a thermoplastic composite and recycled plastic. To demonstrate its strength a 70-ton M1A1 Abrams tank was driven across the bridge at its official unveiling in September.

According to Axion, the company with the contract to build the bridge, its recycled plastic railroad ties are actually longer-lasting that typical creosote-treated wood railroad ties.
news.cnet.com

Every year we make enough plastic film to shrink-wrap the state of Texas...An estimated 14 billion pounds of trash, much of it plastic is dumped in the world's oceans every year... theskinner

Android takes the future of the app store and hands it over to the developer, consumer.

It is an entirely mobile app stream where refunds and updates are all accomplished from your handset. It starts with a search field but also breaks down into categories of most downloaded and types of apps.

I like the "Just in" category. For me, it serves as an alternative news feed of the latest apps which are just pouring in these days. I check the "Just in" app feed for a look at what people are developing.

There is little risk when reviewing a paid app because uninstalling them automatically credits your purchase immediately.

Once your card of choice is saved into the Android Market, the purchase and credit is a one button affair.

Access to the Android Market is via an icon on your mobile desktop and the refund is instantaneously obtained by Settings>Applications and choosing the app from the list

If feeling rogue, you can opt out of exclusively downloading from the Android Market and download from the wild through an opt out check.

Once you have your zillion apps downloaded, updates are received automatically through the notifications shade from the top of the home screen from where you can update all your apps from the wireless connection.

Once you have paid for an app you don't pay for it again.

Perhaps the most exciting part of the Android Market is the open door for those with the skills to develop apps.

It's the rebirth of the mom & pop corner store, but this time for the geek.

It's like Walmart charging you a small fee to access their retail network to sell your ideas and hard work from your corner store, globally.

Anyone with the skill set, ambition and a great idea can be part of a global economy that seems to be more and more dominated by corporations that force you into consolidation and the sucking sound of a single revenue stream to them.

This is what I love most about Droid.

Google Voice is a free data based calling system that gives you a new telephone number, messaging and voice mail services. Calls within the US and Canada are at no charge to your calling plan and international calls are generally pennies (pre-paid) a minute.

GV recently received alot of publicity when it was put on indefinite hold by AT&T / Apple as a service that duplicated or replaced the functionality of the iPhone. It does just that by reducing the cost of calls to the person who owns the phone.

Once your are signed into your GV account on the Droid, it automatically gives you the option of making the call through Verizon or your unlimited data connection. You can set it so that I always goes though GV without the menu appearing.

It's seamless in that you can't tell if you are talking on either service. Those receiving the call or text message will notice a different phone number. You can change your phone number via the GV dashboard at any time. GV voice mail integrates with Gmail though Labs and offers text translation of voice mail.

I recently wanted to return a call from Canada. I haven't had a land line in years. The return call to Canada was free (on a cell phone!) and that is cheaper than it was 10 years ago.

Even if you don't use GV every day it's a great tool for international calls or if you are nearing your calling limit.

It makes me want to actually use my phone for talking.

Philips has developed, manufactured and will bring to market an LED replacement for the common 60-Watt incandescent light bulb taking first place in a competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy.

The L Prize is the first government-sponsored technology competition designed to spur lighting manufacturers to develop high-quality, high-efficiency solid-state lighting products to replace the common light bulb.

Building the combined inbox, some web update photos and a Droid Yahoo solution

paulkuehnel - droid comb inbox, lost a compose by jumping between apps, brush a wrong button?...it almost always has been saved in drafts automatically

paulkuehnel - RT @twidroid ::: new version for moto DROID and other hi-res screen devices coming early next week

To mount the drive via USB on the Droid.

1. Plug in USB
2. Pull down notifications shade and click on the USB notification.
3. Another option will appear to mount the drive.

This way the drive isn't mounting every time you charge it off a computer.

Option appears in shade again to unmount.

The debugging connection is showing because the phone is in development mode.

I like Bloo better than the native facebook app Verizon ships with the Droid. The latter doesn't push notifications consistently.

I set my location seeking preferences to WIFI yesterday for when the phone isn't in a GPS location *(off by default). In a location that was obviously Pennsylvania my Weatherbug app and Google Maps switched to India.

It was an exciting short trip, but I had to get back to work so I disabled IP address location tool for indoors.


paulkuehnel: Liking Bloo android app for Facebook the fb app bundled with #droid doesn't push notifications consistently. Bloo looks polished

paulkuehnel: I just loaded the "days until I die" app droid and it says I'm gone 6/2011, which is cool because I've been looking for ways to dump my 401K

The Android Market pushed a $.99 cent app overnight for journalists and scanner junkies called PoliceStream. The App has archived over 2500 police scanner streams and streams them from your Android phone.

Cities are searched by letter or state and has a nifty spin bar down the side that finds your stream fast.

For York County, the streams are broken into two streams, one for fire and the other for police. The delay is several seconds from real-time but is about the same as the stream we cooked up at ydr.inyork.com/ydr/crime

I haven't listened long enough to determine if it's missing anything, but the inherent nature of scanners is that two scanners running at the same time will usually be prioritized differently.

I was told by a Verizon rep that the data plan on the Droid is unlimited (I keep asking people because of the 5gig included cap on wireless access cards), but using WIFI when available will cut down on data use on the Verizon wireless network.

As AT&T will tell you with their popular iPhone, data use on a wireless network is eventually everyone's issue whether it be the cost structure or network experience.

The excellent multitasking abilities of the Verizon Droid allows this app to run in the background while you use other services like email. The loud clear internal speaker is excellent for the task.

As 911 communication systems migrate away from analog systems into trunked digital systems, journalists have been forced to junk their old scanners. A new trunked scanner can cost over $600. My Droid just paid for itself.

Apps from the Android Market are only available for download and purchase via and Android based phone.

I've gone from amazement, to hate and concluded with love for the Verizon Droid.

There is always a learning curve when you are shifting out of a device (Blackberry Storm) that you have figured out an efficient work flow. Today, I figured out the Droid's multitasking philosophy.

The phone almost asks for you to dump on the multi-tasking. It doesn't seem to slow down at all.

The notification shade that pulls down from the top of the home screen groups ongoing updates like weather and available WIFI spots, and new notifications like email, twitter, facebook and messaging. Even downloads are updated graphically in real-time here.

You can jump to the apps that correspond to the notifications from here or clear all of the notifications with one button.

The BlackBerry uses multiple graphical icons for it's push icons, so this make more sense if you have many applications running at once.

Like the BlackBerry, the Droid has an alert LED at the top of the case to alert you if the phone is on silent or you don't hear the audible alert.

No LED, no need to wake up the phone and check the notifications.

My Droid's twitter feed from today

paulkuehnel: Pandora CEO "Just saw P android download # f the day... #droids are very much among us" bodes well for app development -- about 16 hours ago from twidroid

If I hear one more news clip calling the Droid an "iPhone killer" or a blogger saying it's not, I'm going to throw up.

Verizon's Motorola Droid Android 2.0 smart phone was released yesterday.

After a weekend with Verizon's Droid, I have concluded that the phone is an evolution of things.

I see bits and pieces of other phones that are successful and departures from corporate philosophy of competitors that Verizon and Google have attempted to capitalize on.

I was a Blackberry Storm user for the past year. I loved the phone. The multitasking, the great camera/flash, the integrated multiple pushed email and SMS/MMS. That is what I use 90% of my phone for. I'm not much of an app person beyond using core apps like Facebook and Twitter.

I like to create and spread content and that end needs a strong blend of hardware and application.

If RIM can be be criticized for anything with the Storm 1, it is that they tried to make it do too much before their hardware and operating system could handle it. The hardware in the Storm 2 seems to address these issues.

Potential that needs to be executed with care is an asset and sure beats limitations and walls.

The first thing a Blackberry user notices about Droid is a return key and the list of multi-tasking programs off a long press of the home key.

Droid has unified email, like BlackBerry, but oddly the home base Gmail account is a separate feed. Although, I haven't set up other email accounts to see how this works. I tried.

My Microsoft Outlook web work email didn't work (need to wait for IT for exchange help Monday) and using it to connect to Yahoo web mail requires that you pay Yahoo $20 a year premium for POP access. The Droid unified email says it supports POP3, IMAP and Exchange. My BlackBerry synced with all of these from day one with little effort and no extra expense.

Update 11/11/09 Yahoo is working in the combined inbox for free.

Update 11/09/09: Synching 2000 Exchange via IMAP was easy with the right information. Both Gmail and the integrated inbox holding me work account have the same look so it has an integrated feel.

The Android (App) Market is easy to use and allows you download apps outside the market after checking a security warning. BlackBerry also allows you to download apps from the wild.

A nice feature of the Android Market is a refund if you uninstall an app within a short period of time. This takes the question out of trying apps that may not be designed for different hardware and OS builds. And some Android Market Apps just don't work with this phone.

I love getting the whole chemistry set to play having no rules with no risk.

Verizon learned that some people don't like to see their branding and red menus. Aside from a Verizon logo at the bottom of the Droid, there is absolutely no Verizon in this phone.

The Verizon has been replaced with Googleness.

It's refreshing to see a different influence in the software integration on a Verizon phone and I already use many Google services so it feels comfortable.

However, try and get rid of the Amazon MP3 store icon and it just reappears and I really don't understand why there isn't an app for Yahoo Mail. There are a list of other Yahoo content apps in the Market. You would think someone would build something.

I guess we will wait and watch the Google evolution.

For the IPhone folks used to an integrated one stop shop of apps and Itunes created especially for their devices and running them one at a time in singular memory management bliss, the Droid will hardly be a killer. This is not a plug and play device.

Shall we start with hunting for USB drivers Motorola/Verzion? This phone operates entirely wirelessly, so the drivers and tethering really aren't necessary. I would still like to back up the memory card without pulling it.

If you are looking for a screaming fast science experiment on a great network, that runs with the multitasking idea, in a light Linux operating system with a growing app base this will excite you.

You like to go, Wow, that's cool... how do I figure out how to do that with no big, fat paper Verizon manual, then you will probably like this Droid.

Check back for more on taming the Droid and follow me as I run wild with the beast.

I once heard an electrical utility use the marketing phrase, "Electric heat is 100% efficient"

The logic is that 100% of the energy available at a heating element becomes heat. The amount of energy lost to get that heat out of the heating element from the energy source is hard to quantify.

Electrical energy begins as a fuel source or renewable, transformed into heat, then motion or converted (solar cells) and is pushed though wires. The efficiency rapidly deteriorates.

I was looking at the specs of a 1997 all electric Chevy S-10. The system efficiency is 73%.

Electrical energy is converted to chemical storage in batteries and then converted back to the motor. Some electric vehicle motors are liquid cooled. This is because the heat generated in the motor must be carried away and that is energy not going to the wheels.

I came across a conventional thermal electricity production efficiency table for European power plants from 1990-2004 (ims.eionet.europa.eu) The average efficiency was 38%.

Think of your home heating system that is converting heat from fuel (running at 60%-95% efficiency), only you have to heat that water to high temperature steam and push a turbine with it loosing efficiency along the way.

Transmission and distribution losses of electricity in the USA were estimated at 7.2% in 1995 (climatetechnology.gov)

My fat cat is more efficient at gathering sunlight than a thin cat. She is 100% efficient at annoying me to get out on the deck for energy capture.

None of this is really scientific, but if you started with 38% efficiency from the power plant then subtract 7.2% from transmission and distribution, then plug it into a vehicle that is 73% efficient, there isn't much of the original energy of the raw fuel to move the vehicle.

To be fair, the efficiency of a gasoline powered vehicle is about 12%, Much of the energy of gasoline is lost in heat and friction, plus we can't forget the energy exerted to refine the fuel.

The value of an electric vehicle is more determined by the energy source.

If you live in Quebec, where over 90% of your energy is produced by hydro or if you are fueled by a solar grid, inefficiency is irrelevant.

Sunshine and flowing water will release their energy regardless of whether we capture it, waste is irrelevant unless you are trying to catch more.

The efficiency (and value) of electric cars should be graded by how well we use renewable resources before electrical energy ever reaches the vehicle, otherwise we are just wasting fossil fuel by converting, transmitting and storing it's energy.

I just revived a 2006 video i produced for Jim Mclure's blog York Town Square, Milkman's relic humming around York County today.

Jay Crist, of Manchester Township, let me drive the 73 year old Rutter's electric stand & drive he restored. The "Gasoline - Electric" brass logo catches your attention.

It has a fluidly like I would assume the large locomotives feel that use the same technology.

The truck was recently featured at the York Fair.

Crist said they were popular in areas where there were steep hills. The torque of an electric motor and not grinding away a clutch were a benefit.

It doesn't have batteries or computerized electrical controllers, just a simple gasoline motor with a generator attached that drives a motor on the differential.

Very few moving parts.

It wasn't designed to be green, but rather just innovative and used the resources of a company that built generators.

Bold stuff for a company surviving at the end of the depression.

Warren Buffet stretched his resources today and bought the 131-year-old Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation for $26 billion. nyt.com

Reason:

• As the economy revives transportation increases.


• Trains are more efficient than trucks and that efficiency climbs as fuel price climbs

It's 19th century green.

Three generations of a York family have gone to the polls as soon as they can vote.

Eula Ritter, age 69, Daniel Glover, age 48, and Keyon Davis, age 6, were volunteering at Shiloh Baptist Church on Election Day in York.

Davis, who can't vote yet, goes into the booth with his grandmother.

I'm reading Fisker to Buy Delaware GM Plant for Plug-In Hybrid Production and it all sounds great on the surface.

Fisker Automotive is buying an old GM factory in Delaware and it will employ 2,000 workers plus supplier jobs. The family-oriented, plug-in hybrid sedan will sell for $39K after a tax credit which could be $7,500?

The catch of a tax credit is that you have to float the amount until the tax check comes. So really you are buying (borrowing for with interest) a $45K family sedan and getting a refund later.

Funding for the deal will come from a conditional loan of $528.7 million from the U.S. Department of Energy.

That's taxpayer money going into a technology laden, hardware heavy vehicle that will compete with the other hybrids with proven track records that weren't subsidized.

If it's a plug-in hybrid then it will compete with the Chevy (vaporware) Volt which will sell in the $40K range and also pull more from the electrical grid than deserts in the Middle East.

Reality check.

People who pay taxes in this country are competing with India and China in a global economy. We are competing with people who ride scooters to work and exist on a much lower standard of living. We haven't gotten this concept yet, but it's evident in the slow job growth and eroding standard of living for the average US worker.

We need to be lean and create lean ideas for conserving resources, not convoluted tax programs for high tech limited production luxury cars.

Give me algae gasoline, give me clean diesel, give me a plug-in hybrid car if I live in Quebec where 90+% of the electric is generated by hydro.

Just give me some simple energy solutions for my tax dollar that will look ahead 30 years.

I have touched on algae biofuel over the past few years, but the recent cross-country trip of the Algaeus brings attention to a biofuel that makes more sense in the long run than ethanol, biodiesel, or purely electric vehicles that burden the power grid.

The biggest problem with producing ethanol from corn and biodiesel from soy is that from the start you have a crop that takes all season to grow and then places a demand on the food stream. It generally takes more energy to produce these fuels than is extracted. Switchgrass, when used to make ethanol, still takes a season to grow.

A promising future:

• Algae grows very quickly (doubling overnight) and can be cultivated in places where crops won't grow.


• It is not a food crop that is currently a traded commodity.


• It has an appetite for carbon dioxide


• Processing and distribution uses existing infrastructure.


• The end product is gasoline that can be burned by older vehicles

About a trillion of our yearly national debt is due to a trade imbalance created by importing fossil fuels.

The U.S. has spent
...
importing fossil fuel.(zfacts.com)

ExxonMobil expects to spend more than $600,000,000 on an algea fuel project.

Sifting through today's BlackBerry OS upgrade, I keep finding improvements and tweaks.

With 5.0, the upgrade via the handset is no longer an option attaching us to the tether and Desktop Manager. A new option appears during the upgrade for an email alert which replaces the handset push.

The entire operation of backing up and restoring data, preferences and apps is accomplished by the desktop manager. Always do a backup first.

Blackberry OS 5.0 finds.

• A new startup screen with a status bar that measures the entire boot-up process


• Menus feather in and out with bouncy scrolls that are more responsive


• Horizontal word correction replaces the vertical making it easier to see all entries


• Larger icons in the media folder for photos


• A touch icon to send email


• Auto-focus now has a maco mode letting you focus almost down to an inch


• The camera responds quicker and the option to customize a physical trigger key is in the camera interface


• You can scale photos sent out via email. The scaled down .png files are as crisp at the full rez. Great for blogging! and direct posting


• Permission approval for apps appears before the download


• MMS/SMS is identified by a bubble instead of the email icon


• SMS has gone fancy with smiles and bubble threading - grouping a thread in the directory. MMS remains utilitarian. I'm not too thrilled with the tiny scrolling windows in the SMS. Pretty takes up too much space. (I have always wondered why if MMS costs the same as SMS and has a longer word limit, why not use MMS all the time?)


• The BlackBerry web browser has been updated


• Steaming radio volume adjusts with the physical buttons while running as a background program.


• The Alert icons have been updated so you no longer confuse medium sound with calls only

Best of all, the upgrade was flawless, free and the phone hasn't crashed or bogged down since I upgraded. So maybe the memory management has improved.

It's great to get a major upgrade just BEFORE RIM releases the Storm 2 giving Storm 1 users a taste of something new before the dulling the sting of hardware envy.

Now on to see how many programs I can run at the same time before it crashes....

While some people retire into a motor home built on a bus chassis pulling a Chevy Suburban, George Bombardier has spent the past 11 years touring the country in a golf cart.

The 68-year-old retired roofer even sleeps in the Club Car golf cart powered by a used 300 cc Kawasaki generator engine.

Taking my vacations on a motorcycle over the past nine years, I understand Bombardier's storytelling zest.

"You really get to see the country," he said, "including things you don't want to see, like tornadoes and things like that. You don't want to see one of those, I'll tell you. Not up close."

He has also been through the the Holland Tunnel into New York City, because they wouldn't let him take the cart on the Staten Island Ferry, and to Washington D.C. because he wanted to see where the president lives.

It takes him about 10-20 days to cross the United States mostly on small roads, but that seems to be the point of traveling for Bombardier.

He's had open heart surgery, and he died three times on the table, or at the hospital. And now he has a machine in his chest that powers his heart.

Bombardier will delight in his stories about facing death with the same sense of adventure that he brings to his life.

So if you see a golf cart buzzing around York that looks like a tiny red 57' Chevy that's been through a few too many adventures, its just on the way to the next adventure.

Mark Bluett got really frustrated making his first stringed instrument when he was 12.

"The instrument ended up in the fireplace," he said. "Actually, I got so mad, I ended up burning it."

In a blind test at Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University many years later, one of Bluett's handmade violins competed against instruments that were 200 years old and worth $150,000.

"They all picked mine as the best instrument, and it was a week old," Bluett said.

His humble beginning came 25 years ago this month in his brother's dining room. In that time, Bluett has crafted 220 handmade violins, and a total of about 1,400 stringed instruments.

He's the artist behind Bluett Brothers Violins in Spring Garden Township, where custom violins sell for about $6,000.

His creations sing their songs in symphonies, teach students at the Peabody Institute, play country music in Nashville, and fiddle for the Irish.

For this luthier, as he refers to himself, it all boils down to one thing.

"When you string it up, and the joy of hearing it . . . that's what I live for."