Month: May 2008

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Drivers start your engines, I get Paunched again!

As many may have picked up, or not, I Greg am quite the motorsports aficionado. One of my favorite days of the year is Sunday, Memorial Day Weekend. This year, while recovering from my 70 mile bicycle ride, I’ll be glued to the set for the 92nd Indianapolis 500. Well, while the action has been going on in Indiana for the last 2 plus weeks, you’d think to see it you’d have to fly out to Indy, right? No! On Monday, May 19, they flew the full field of 33 drivers (30 guys and 3 ladies) to New York City, right over the river from me. They all took part in a group photo op. next to the Charging Bull sculpture downtown on Broadway at the Canyon of Heroes.

The only problem was A) I didn’t find out until afterwards, and B) I was too busy at work to go anyway. But argggggghhhhh how annoying! Paunch Luck again. The next closest Indycar race is 4 hours away in Watkins Glen, NY. What other chance would I have to see the entire field of drivers though for the Indy 500 without being there? Rats! NASCAR does the same thing, having their actual cars ride through Manhattan in December. I’ve yet to see it, because I always forget when it is, so I can take off from work.

http://www.indycar.com/news/?story_id=11417

Indy 500 drivers in NYC

PS: The Dush (Eliza Dushku) has been in NY a lot lately promoting her new show Dollhouse I assume, but I never know where beforehand. Paunched!

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Unboxing My New HP Computer

HP Pavilion Elite m9250f

After months of research and waiting, I finally bought a new computer: an HP Pavilion Elite m9250f. Circuit City had it for a good price and Intel isn’t releasing any major new processors for a while, so it seemed like the right time.

I’m still setting up the new computer, but hope to have episode 102 online soon. I copied all of my files from my Dell Dimension 4500 to my external USB hard drive and am now copying them from the USB drive to the HP.

My old Dell from 2002 is still a good computer, but I do a lot of audio editing, image editing, and video editing and this new HP will save me a ton of time. I just performed a test to see exactly how much time I’ll save and the results are even better than I anticipated. On my old Dell, applying noise reduction to a 30-minute audio file takes roughly 14 minutes. I thought that was pretty good. On my new HP, it takes roughly three minutes. Wow.

For those of you who are into computers, I posted unboxing photos and photos comparing my Dell tower to my new HP tower:

Flickr – Unboxing my new HP, NYC 5/17/08

For those of you who are really into computers, here are the specs for my old Dell and new HP:

Dell Dimension 4500 and HP Pavilion Elite m9250f specs – text file

As amazingly fast as this new computer is, there are a few things I like better about my old Dell. The Dell tower was designed so it could be lifted and carried easily. The HP tower wasn’t. The Dell came with a standard keyboard, which I like. The HP came with a multimedia keyboard, which has a slightly different layout. I use a lot of keyboard shortcuts while working, so I notice the fact that certain keys are different sizes and in different places.

This is my first time using Windows Vista. One thing I don’t like about it is that Microsoft changed the audio mixer. The one in Windows 98 and XP was convenient and simple. It was almost perfect. The one in Vista is useless. I’ll probably end up searching for a third-party audio mixer online, but I wouldn’t have to if Microsoft hadn’t ruined it in the first place.

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Newspapers Are Obsolete

With TV, radio, and internet access at home, at work, and on mobile phones, what is the point of newspapers? If people want the latest headlines, sports scores, stock prices, and sales, they can turn on the TV, turn on the radio, or visit Yahoo!, CNN, ESPN, or Amazon for free. Yet, millions of people across the U.S. still spend 50 cents every morning to carry around 100-page newspapers, read day-old information, and get ink all over their hands. It doesn’t make sense. The majority of newspaper content is useless advertisements anyway.

Do most individuals use newspapers to sell things anymore? No, they use eBay, Amazon, and Craig’s List. Do they use newspapers to look for jobs anymore? No, they use HotJobs, Monster, and Craig’s List. Even the New York Times crossword puzzle can be downloaded and printed on demand.

Fifty years ago, newspapers were great. They were 1958’s equivalent to the internet. They allowed everyone to have fast access to information, but fifty years later, with our modern alternatives and environmental awareness, do we really need to keep wasting tons of paper, ink, and energy printing newspapers 365 days a year?

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Ed Begley, Jr.

Ed Begley, Jr.

Ed Begley, Jr. is an actor and environmentalist. He is best known for his role as Dr. Victor Ehrlich on the TV show St. Elsewhere and has starred in several movies, including Best in Show (2000), A Mighty Wind (2003), and For Your Consideration (2006). He starred in his own environmental reality show Living with Ed on HGTV in 2007 and released his book Living Like Ed: A Guide to the Eco-Friendly Life in February 2008.

On Sunday, April 27, 2008, Ed Begley, Jr. made a keynote speech at the PSEG Global Green Expo 2008 in Jersey City, NJ. Afterwards, he let us take a picture with him and granted us an interview, which we featured in episode 101. Thanks!

discussed in episodes 99 and 101