Author: kunefke

State of the Union

The State of the Union is fantastic.  President Bush hit it on the head. 
The Democrats thought they were being smart to clap and cheer when he said that Congress didn’t follow his lead to make reforms to Social Security, but the President showed how stupid they were by saying that Social Security is worse now than it was last year due to their refusal to change the Social Security Policy last year.  They stupidly cheered him on after he showed the country that the Democrats were to blame for it.
The more often they show their complete opposition to anything President Bush puts forward, the more regular private citizens of America will come to the realization that all the “mainstream” Democrats want to do is to oppose President Bush, no matter what he’s proposing.  They have let their hatred for him, rooted in their loss of power, cloud their judgement on many issues, including their own scruples.
I have to admit, there are some democrats that showed some solid character by standing up by themselves in approval for at least some of President Bush’s vision.  The’ll probably get a good bashing from their usual cohorts, and I hope they do.  I also hope that the heat they feel will encourage them to stand for principles instead of their party.
Wonderful speech, Mr. President.  Thanks for serving our country, and may God Bless You.

Filing Taxes

I just filed my taxes for 2005. It was relatively easy, and I did it all online.
I used www.olt.com to prepare and file all of my paperwork. If your income falls between $10,000-$50,000, you can e-file for free. Otherwise, the cost to e-file is only $7.95.
Here in Texas, we don’t have a State Income Tax, but if your state does have an income tax, it’s only $7.95 to file at OLT.
I’ve used software (Tax***) that I’ve bought for the past few years, and this was just as easy as those. The website automatically filled out extra forms without my having to tell it to. I had the option to remove them, but I didn’t need to.
There are other free options for preparing and filing online. You can find the entire list HERE.

Music

I’ve spent the better part of the day cleaning up my office and organizing my music collection. I’ve been ripping my CDs to mp3s and getting the CDs ready for storage. It’s fun to listen to some music I hadn’t heard in a while, yet know all of the words and the timing of every part of the songs.
I have a lot more CDs than I thought I did. Add that to all of the mp3s I’ve been buying on allofmp3.com, and I’ve got a bigger than average collection.
The funny thing is that ever since I learned about allofmp3.com, I’ve listened to more music than I remember ever listening to. I’ve felt more at ease buying more music because I don’t have to spend so much. The model for purchasing through allofmp3 has enabled me to buy so much more music, that I’ve probably spent more on the music I’ve downloaded than I would’ve put into Cds for the entire year.
It seems like a pretty good example of my views on economics. When you make it cheaper, more people will buy it. The better part is, more people will buy more of it. Over time, they’ll spend more than they would’ve spent had it been more expensive because they can split up their purchases over time instead of having to wait until they have a full amount to buy the expensive stuff.
When I think about buying a CD, I think, “There’s a pretty good chance that I may only listen to this a few times, so I’m not sure if $12 is the price I want to pay for this CD, especially when I only like one song on it.”
I sometimes will buy an entire album on allofmp3.com simply because it doesn’t cost that much more for me to check out the music. I wish that the imbeciles running the music industry would look into selling their music for cheaper than a CD. They’re trying to make MORE money by charging the same amount as a CD and not getting a hard copy of it. It’s just a way for them to get more out of their music, when oftentimes it’s really not worth it to the average (would be) consumer.
I’m confident that if they’d drop their prices for music online and drop the DRM, that music piracy would drop dramatically.

Smallville’s 100th Episode

For weeks we’ve known that someone would die in this episode.  Now, when I say ‘we’, I mean those of us who have a habit of watching every episode and look online for spoilers.
I went into the episode expecting Mr. Kent to die at some point.  I didn’t read that in a spoiler, but I was just expecting it because it’s in line with the whole story of Superman.
When I saw Lana get hit by the bus, I knew that she was dead.  The only problem I could see was that the episode was only halfway over.  I was relieved to see that there would be another chance for him.
I felt horrible that after the knowledge that she’d have said yes, and now he couldn’t tell her his secret.  Then she decides to split up with him, and I felt like my heart was about to stop for Clark.
Clark saved Lois from being electrocuted, and Lana shows up at Lex’s.  A different, yet similar scene takes place, and he ends up chasing her up hwy 40 again.  Clark makes it in time to save her inconspicuously, but the only thing different about her near-death experience is that Lex was there to console her.
As soon as I saw Jonathan looking at Lana as he was driving by, I knew that he was about to die.  I didn’t think it would come down to something happening between Lionel and him when he came home to meet Lionel.  He did give Lionel a good beating before he went into cardiac arrest, but as soon as he hesitated, I knew it was about to happen.
This episode was a real heart-stopper.
It really made me mad that Lana let go of Clark’s hand at the grave site and it looked as if she went in the direction of Lex.  I guess this will give Clark even more reason to not want to trust or be associated with Lex.
I guess the only good thing that can come from this is the fact that now Clark will be free to explore a relationship with Chloe without having to worry about how Lana feels about it.

Push The Button

I was browsing threads at The Fuselage and came across this neat little game where you can voluneer to push the button.
The game is harder than you’d think. You have to wait the 108 minutes to push the button without entering anything else in. Sure, there are a few eggs built into the program, but it’s really hard to keep from doing something else.
Try entering ‘help’ without the quotes, and you’ll get one of the simpler eggs.  I wouldn’t get carried away with trying stuff out, though, because I’d hate to see the end of the world come any sooner than I already have to.
If you have the time to check it out, press the Execute button at the bottom of the page linked above.

Tab Sidebar for Firefox

I’ve been looking for a way to gain more vertical space and utilize the horizontal space (like putting the toolbars on the left or right of an application) for a while.
With video displays moving to the widescreen format, moving toolbars to the side instead of the top of the application just makes sense.
There is an extension for Firefox that allows you to put your tabs on the left side of your browser instead of taking up space at the top.
The cool thing about this extension is that there are a few more bells and whistles than the original tab bar to play with.

Perfect Time to Wake Up

I browse Digg.com on a regular basis.  I love seeing new technology, and it makes me want more toys.  There’s a new toy being released soon that looks incredible. 
I honestly don’t look at it as a toy, because I would consider it a health device.  Just as a heart monitor will tell you when to get to the doctor/hospital, this alarm clock tells you when to wake up feeling the most refreshed.
There are cycles that people go through while sleeping.  I never seem to wake up at the right point in my sleep cycle, and it usually takes me a little while to wake up.  The Axbo actually monitors your heartrate with a wireless wristband, and wakes you up during the window of time you have preset when it is best for your sleep cycle.  My explanation is not very clear, I know, but they explain it much better on HERE.
Right now you can get a second wristband for the second alarm for no additional cost.
I will not be buying this for myself anytime soon, but if you’re looking to get me something for valentines day, this $244 health device would be the perfect thing.

Nvu

I was working on the list of essential freeware, and I thought of Nvu. I wanted to post it because nvu is a free and really user-friendly HTML editor. The people who created it are associated with the creators of Linspire, and they made it as visually attractive as Linspire.

Lifehacker Pack

This list of software that is essential to all techies out there.  The software is free and opensource, so it’s a good list to keep on hand.  I’m going to create a page to download the programs I have the right to distribute on here.
The list can be found by clicking HERE.
If you can think of any other programs that aren’t listed, like AVG Antivirus, let me know, so I can add them to the page I create.