Chad's News

An informative article on how to get the most out of the rechargeable batteries used in electronic devices.

http://www.komando.com/…

Okay, this is just plain weird. A road is closed, so the GPS navigation system routes drivers down a road that goes through a river. And they drive right into the water, flooding their cars. The clincher, however, is that this is happening on a daily basis.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/…

“Back in the day,” I remember running a debugger with one screen showing the debugger and the other showing the program that I was debugging. Very convenient. Apparently there is a 20-30% productivity benefit to having dual monitors on your computer—no matter what it is you’re doing.

On the other hand, Ars Technica has a dissenting opinion.

http://www.nytimes.com/…

This article gives the essentials of what to look for when purchasing a high-definition television.

http://www.lifehacker.com/…

C.K Wilde is an artist who makes pictures out of money. Some of them are really good. Check out the full gallery (the better ones are towards the bottom).

http://www.neatorama.com/…

I didn’t even know there was a professional video gaming circuit, but now they’re going to be televised. First poker, then video games—what could possibly be next?

http://msnbc.msn.com/…

I guess there’s something to be said for lack of sophistication.

http://today.reuters.com/…

Memory prices are expected to go up in the next few months, so buy now or pay later.

http://arstechnica.com/…

http://www.tgdaily.com/…

Having just switched to bloglines I was pleasantly surprised to see two subscribers to Chad’s News. But as I dug further, I found that the bloglines experience was not as good as expected.

First and foremost, the title link for each entry is modified by bloglines, and returns a 404 error. I’ve checked the raw feed, and it is not my fault—bloglines is the culprit. I just finished sending them feedback, and hopefully they will fix this soon.

Second, I make liberal use of the <dfn> HTML tag when using words that may require definitions. I use javascript to open the definition in another window, but bloglines strips the javascript, thus making the definition useless. For future entries, I will use a non-javascript method (like this). Also, <dfn>’d words are in italics (I have some really neat formatting for them, but it’s in the CSS style rules and doesn’t get included in the RSS feed—and bloglines strips out style information anyway.).

Thanks for subscribing to Chad’s News, and feel free to contact me with any comments.

For us netizens who reside in the United States, “use taxes” are starting to become an important topic. Essentially, a use tax is a sales tax on purchases for which you didn’t have to pay sales tax. I know that sounds confusing, so let me give an example:

I live in Denver, Colorado but travel to Oregon (which has no state sales tax) and purchase a car. When I return home, I am required to pay a use tax of 7.6%:

• Colorado state: 2.9%
• Denver city: 3.5%
• Regional Transportation District: 1.0%
• Scientific and Cultural Facilities District: 0.1%
• Metropolitan Football Stadium District: 0.1%

This happens to be exactly the same amount I’d pay in sales tax had I bought the car in Denver. If the car were to be delivered to my location in Denver, then the seller should collect the use tax. Otherwise, it is my responsibility to pay the taxes to the appropriate authorities.

So why is this important? It’s all about the internet. When I purchase a “tax-free” product online and don’t pay the appropriate use tax, I’m breaking the law. As internet sales have become more popular, the states have begun to realize they’re losing use-tax revenues—so they’re cracking down. Some states, Colorado not among them, have put a line on the state tax form for honest citizens to declare any use taxes they owe. As the linked article states:

“If you’ve written zero or left [the use tax entry] blank, during the audit we’re going to make you produce your financial records, bank statements, credit card statements,‘ said Michael Bucci, a spokesman for the New York Department of Taxation and Finance.

Over the past few years I’ve heard various mutterings about the collection of use taxes for internet purchases, and I expect it to become more of an issue as time progresses.

http://news.com.com/…

This video is a series of clips from The Flinstones, back when cigarette companies could advertise on television. And yes, that is Wilma smoking a cigarette.

http://www.youtube.com/…

If you purchased or received a qualifying Epson inkjet printer between April 8, 1999 and May 8, 2006 and also purchased an Epson ink cartridge for the printer, then you are eligible to receive one of the following (your choice) as part of a class-action settlement:

• $45 Epson e-store credit.
• $25 check and $20 Epson e-store credit.
• 25% off an Epson e-store purchase (max $100).

This settlement is for each printer purchased during the period, so if you bought 10 printers, you can get $250 cash. Note also that the cutoff date is in the future (May 8th)—as far as I can tell, you could purchase a qualifying printer now and treat this settlement as a form of mail-in rebate.

http://www.epsonsettlement.com/