Quotes of the Day

"Why would I want to drive a car that looks like a basket?" - Me commenting about the PT Cruiser convertible

"My head hurts, unless I can get some catered service around here, I'm going to call the president!" - Troy from "The Apprentice"

Synthetic Oil Life Study

If you drive a car, you may be interested in this http://neptune.spacebears.com/cars/stories/oil-life.html. These guys are running synthetic oil (first they tried Mobil 1, now they are running Amsoil) and taking samples of the oil every 1000 miles and seeing how it holds up. There are a number of different goals of this study.

1. To see how long you can safely run a synthetic oil.
   
2. How do Mobil 1 and Amsoil compare.
   

I've been running oil analysis reports for my Subaru WRX as well which has allowed me to comfortably run oil change intervals of 7500 miles.

The forums at BobIsTheOilGuy are a great resource for those of you interested in automotive lubrication.

Free Speech and eVoting

'Why I Like Howard Stern' - Best summary of why people enjoy listening to Howard Stern I've come across. If things continue as they have been, it won't be long until the majority of good content will only be available through un-restricted formats such as satellite radio and the internet as media giants get bigger. Could these large media companies be shooting themselves in the foot by pulling the knee jerk reaction instead of thinking of the future?

While a lot of people are real gung-ho about eVoting, I'm not so sure it's ready yet. Being a software developer myself, I know how difficult it is to design and build a fool-proof, reliable and redundant system. Unfortunately, the current solution deployed does not meet those standards. See
'Campaign launched to ban digital ballots' and related links from google.

Links of the Day

Here's Dan Gillmor's take on the recent controversy surrounding Clear Channel's decision to take Howard Stern off their channels.

Is it bad or good for you? This BBC article explains the benefits of strong coffee.

Of particular interest to me (and my wife, Wendy) is that inhaled steroids for allergy relief are safe for pregnant women and their unborn baby. Given that Wendy is allergic to just about everything under the sky and inhaled steroids provide the most effective relief, this is good news for when we decide to have kids!