I love my Dropbox , but Google Drive  and Microsoft metformin 1000 mg cost Sky Drive launched today with much flair.  They are both about half the price of Dropbox, but my love for Dropbox is the easy folder integration, I have to test if these new services are as easy. The big concern no one is talking about, is the fine print and this would make me run from Google and give Microsoft a bug hug (and my money)

Google ToS: “When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content.”

Microsoft SkyDrive ToS: “Except for material that we license to you, we don’t claim ownership of the content you provide on the service. Your content remains your content. We also don’t control, verify, or endorse the content that you and others make available on the service.”

Auto Racing is like Soccer, The rest of the world can’t see to get enough of it, but Americans don’t really care about it.

I find it interesting of the opposing view points from reading F1 Blog and watching FastLane Daily. It is funny how F1 Blog seems to think that Americans have no idea what F1 is and FLD seems to think F1 is doing great in the US and Grand-Am is doing horrible. The major theme I get out of it is “Auto Racing in America, Is it Entertaining?”

NASCAR: It is the one popular racing sport in the US and here is why I think it is popular. Oval Races are easy to watch live, you can see everything that is going on. There are fun Friday night and Saturday night races going on all over the country. Going to the race is also a social experience in small towns, Over time this translates in to following the pro guys. Going to Pro NASCAR Race is a mini vacation, beer fest, tailgate party, It is not just about the Racing.

What is it that Americans don’t like about other Racing?

• Americans can not relate to a race or a how hard it is to be a good driver. It looks so easy, there is not enough of a challenge(in the Avg American’s eyes).
• If they are slightly interested and you want to go see a race live, it pretty much sucks live. You really only get a view of one corner at a time and to go see another corner it is a 1 mile hike. There are no jumbotrons at most tracks, either.
• There are not many hometown heroes to root for, Most Drivers come from other countries.
• Weak Story lines. Ok I watch one race, I have no vested interest in any of the drivers or teams, I don’t really care who wins, why would I watch next week?  This is where the announcers need to step up their game.  (I need to give Credit the World Challenge for inserting the coin flip. I don’t like the coin flip, but I like that they were trying to spark things up)  Our Announcers Assume two things, 1 The audience knows nothing about what they are watching and tries to explain everything, or 2 They assume we are true fans and know everything and we will always tune in.  They need something more.
• AMLS and Grand-Am,  Your Races are too Long.  If you had a major fan base already, 2.5 hours would be fine, but getting someone to commit 2.5 hours time to something they know nothing about is very hard.

I am a racer and a race fan and even I can’t watch a full race.  I am looking at the racer’s aspect,  I am looking at racing lines, passing techniques and pit strategy.  I am also pressed for time to watch racing and do my own.  I am watching F1, AMLS, Gram-am(both broadcasts),WRC, DTM, V8 Supercars, BTCC and WTCC (when I can get them).  I will also watch Nascar and Indy cars when they are on a road course.

What do you think American Racing needs?

Sorry all, I was away from my main computer and a reliable internet connection while I was away in the Philippines. I didn’t have a chance to update my blog or really work on my existing projects. I have received a few requests for an affiliate template in Magneto, so guess I will finish that up, and get that out soon.

I have really been working my Video making while I was abroad. I didn’t get much of a chance to review the footage in country, but now that I am back I can see alot of my filming mistakes.

I did get in some poker games over there. it was nice to play some low stakes live. .40-.80 cents low.

one thing about the trip is that I have a list 1000 pages long of new things I want to do. New projects and such. So More coming soon.

I travel full time for a living and the worst thing about traveling is packing. Trying to get my entire life crammed in to two suit cases is very frustrating. I am not very good at folding and I found on the web how to make a folding machine. I took that basic idea and I think I improved on it. I also decided to record me designing and building the machine.

Dan Pereda’s “How to make a t-shirt folding machine”

The Orginal Upgraded T-shirt Folding Machine – Click here for funny video clips

Supplies Needed
2 20″x30″ foam board (1 dollar each at the dollar store) or you can use scrap card board.
Heavy duty tape
Cutting device (box cutter)
Ruler
Pen or Marker

Panel A is 7.5 Inches by 30 Inches (you need 2 panels A s)
Panel B is 9 Inches by 12 Inches
Panel C is 9 Inches by 18 Inches

I use foam board because I didn’t have and cardboard and the slicker surface helps.

*** Cutting devices should only be used by adults.
*** Please make sure you don’t cut or ruin what is underneath the material your cutting.

Explanation about the upgrades will come in a later post.

Please send me or post questions and comments.

Enjoy. Dan…
*****this post was updated to add a new video source

By Dan Pereda
www.danpereda.com

I know you have heard it before, “Linux will never be main stream because of … (Insert reason)”. And all the fan boys will respond in a nice polite manner to explain how much better Linux is or how IF you had learned to use Linux first, Windows would just seem wired stupid and wrong. Well that is just it.

Windows is not better than Linux for what it does today. It is better than Linux for what it did 20 years ago. What was that you might ask? Windows took a new technology (Computers) that scared most people and made it easy and user friendly. Why were people afraid of computers? They were afraid of change, did not really want to have to learn something new, and most of all they did not want to look stupid. With Windows, the power of a computer was now graphical and any thing was just a click away.

Fast forward to today and Windows is the defacto standard on more than 90% of the worlds computers. Now you are asking the world to change from Windows to Linux. Why would they do that? What do you get from Linux that you don’t get from Windows? For those that don’t remember or were not alive, it took along time for a lot of people to accept computers as something that everyone was going to need or want. It was only after there became a social and economic mandate that you be able to use a computer and then own a computer or your gonna get left in the dust, that computers boomed in to expansion.

I do not see that Linux has much to offer the average user. Not enough to warrant people dedicating time to learn something new, or worse admitting that they don’t know something to begin with. I know some of your arguments:

• Linux is free – Most people never pay for Windows, it’s included in their computer’s purchase price.
• Linux is more secure – Most people don’t care. People think “Security problems are going to happen to me”.
• Linux is more stable – Fine, whatever. Windows XP almost never crashes. And Id rather reboot my PC once a year than learn Linux.
• Linux has a ton of free programs – It doesn’t have the main stream programs that I bought for my PC (Adobe Premier or NASCAR 2008)

What prompted me to write this is that I have several computers in my house all with different operating systems including Debian, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Ubuntu and more. Now that I am getting a little older and I am becoming busier, I just don’t have time to manage all these systems. I need to consolidate and upgrade. I pondered going to a new MAC and scrapping everything else, No my programs that I have won’t work on a MAC and I will not repurchase them just to put them on a MAC. Fine I will go fully Linux, No I can’t even port my graphics/video software to Linux. Well what is wrong with Windows? I already own copies of XP pro and Vista and frankly with my short amount of free time Windows is the easiest way to go.

Don’t get me wrong. I love Linux. It is great and unbelievably powerful. I use it everyday to run this website and others; it also runs my phone system. I don’t feel that Linux will become main stream until it can offer something that Windows can’t and the world can’t live without.

In summery Linux is still missing the “KILLER APP”.

I know what some of you are thinking and for that, in this article I am only talking about Linux on the desktop. Servers, appliances and other geek only systems don’t count.

By Dan Pereda
www.danpereda.com