As California not recommending to use fireworks because of the wildfires and the smokey air. I have an alternative way of making fireworks that fly in Halo. You will need 

• Plasma Grenades
• A course to play in (I prefer the Gephyrobhopia)
• You maybe need a vehicle 

First get to the place with the highest elevation. Then quickly place two plasma grenades one on top of each other. After that, watch it fly in the air and explode in the air.Note: try not to not shake the mouse or use a touchpad. It will alter the direction where the second grenade will fly. Enjoy 

As Chrysler soon rolling out their 2009 model cars with an optional Wi-Fi hotpot inside cars, is it a good idea to do that. Already with cell phones, people are having one hand on the wheel and one hand on the cell phone, talking without a handset or texting. Some states ban calling on the cell phone while driving unless with a headset. Imagine people driving and surfing the net at the same time. The roads will be more dangerous.

It is still pretty cool and innovative for Chrysler installing Wi-Fi in cars, but are they crazy for deciding to install it in cars. I bet this will cause more problems on the road and more traffic.

What do you think?

On July 2, T-Mobile USA is going to launch a service called T-Mobile AtHome. It let customers to place unlimited calls in the US with landlines phones over high speed Internet connection. It plans to cost $10 per month when it comes out. The downside is that customers needs a wireless plan that cost a minimal of $40 a month, and need to buy a T-Mobile Internet router for about $50 which plugs into the home Internet connection and then the customer landline phone plugs into the router. The router also let Wi-Fi -equipped cell phone to use their own wireless router to call out rather than using T-Mobile wireless broadcasting antenna.

T-Mobile Internet phone plan is similar to VoIP service like Vonage  They both provide a additional box to connect to a existing router. Unlike Vonage, T-Mobile solution is to switch  out the customer’s existing router.

In less than a week Bill Gates will step down of his day to day responsibilities of Microsoft to a part time work at Microsoft. He will work full time on his charity foundation, founded by his wife, after he steps down known as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.Gates started Microsoft in 1975 with Steve Ballmer, Gates childhood friend. Gates was chairman and CEO of Microsoft from 1986 to 2000 until Steve took over as CEO. It started with the days of MS-DOS, Microsoft first operating system called Microsoft Disk Operating System, to Windows and XBox and Microsoft Office. Microsoft’s Chief Technical Officer Ray Ozzie will assume title of chief software architect, and Microsoft’s CTO for advanced strategies and policies Craig Mundie will immediately take the new of chief research and strategy officer and will assume Gates’ responsibilities for Microsoft’s research and incubation efforts. Ray Ozzie and Craig Mundie will report to Steve Ballmer after Bill Gates leave. 

Get ready for Firefox 3, because it is going to come out on June 17, 2008. On that day, Mozilla is going to try and break the world record of the most download in 24 hours. There is a link to pledge to download by giving your name, e-mail address, and the country where you live. I had pledge to download on that day. There are many reason to get Firefox 3.

Reason to get Firefox 3:

• Safer browsing

• Better browsing, with thousands of improvements

• Better performance

• Souped-up Add-ons manager

• More intuitive interface overall

• Stronger phishing and malware protection

• Improved download manager

• Native looks for every system

• Streamlined “Remember password” handling

• Smart bookmarks

• Places Organizer replaces the Bookmark Manager

• Smart Location Bar learns how you browse

• Insanely improved performance

It is a good upgrade to get Firefox 3. With better safety, better ram usage, and better appearance, Upgrade to Firefox 3.

As you know in less than a year (February 17, 2009) TV signal will change from analog to digital. It says that it will produce better sound, better picture, and more channels. The thing that grinds my gears is that you will not get dropped signal or no signal if you live 35+ miles from the broadcasting tower. I had tested one of these DTV converter box. It is a RCA DTA 900. CNet and Consumer Reports says it is the best one right now because the video and audio does not glitch up or distort with small small boxes, and loose sound as badly as Magnavox, Insignia or the Zenith DTV Box for a mid price DTV box. When I tested the Box with a Phillips 50db amplified antenna, I got

• Up to 3 main TV stations (up to 5 different channels)
• Low signal strength (usually have boxes, bad sound, or freezes for a while)

With regular analog signal, I get:

• Up to about 12 channels
• Not as good signal, but viewable (fuzzy static sound in a couple of channels, and static on TV screen)

Overall, DTV is not a good idea. Even though you can get more channels, through sub-channel, it can’t get a signal. People who live 35+ miles from the broadcasting tower will have to get a outdoor antenna and set it up on the roof (attic is possible for some antenna, but it will gain less signal than putting on the roof) or ultimately switching to a cable or satellite company. The Insignia and the Zenith DTV converter box are the same. Fortunately I have a satellite for my TV. I test it in-case if I have to live with over the air TV for a while.

I recently saw that my nearest Costco that all of their computers/laptops are selling with 64-bit operating system. I see no other electronic stores that only sell 64-bit operating system computers/laptops. The only thing I am skeptical is that when you use a 32-bit operating system, you will forget it is a 32-bit operating system and programs that use 64-bit CPU will not work. It may be better or worse for a program that is optimized for 64-bit operating system. The good part is that 64-bit is that it can run 32-bit and 16-bit programs. All I can say 64-bit is a good thing if your computer can handle it. 

Made at Jibjab.com.Used Chris’s Flicker photos 

As Vonage and Skype are getting popular, what are the big telephone going to do? Big telephone are going to start doing digital phone. They are usually cheaper than the regular landlines. I guess that they don’t want to leave the competition like what happened to AOL and Netscape internet.

A few collage are now putting podcast of their collage courses for free on iTunes. Some collage are Stanford, UC Davis, etc. It is a very good idea to put courses in podcast form. Many collage students will be willing to download these podcasts. It is brand new and it is a good idea to get.