Electric Car Update

I have Blogged about the advent of electric cars (or electric assisted cars)  before.  Today’s WSJ has a story "California Spurs Electric Cars".  It has little really new information, but it does state that due to California’s strict pollution laws and the new Federal mandate that cars average 54.5 miles a gallon soon, auto makers are having to down play power and speed as a marketing tool, and play up “lower cost of operation”.  And, as this article points out, automakers lose money on every electric car in California  -- $8,000 or so. 

Chrysler will use a Fiat 500 model in California as their all electric offering, losing some money on each car.  But likely they will figure a way to fix the losses once they get going.

What was news to me is that other states are copying California’s new pollution laws,  New York, New Jersey and Maryland are first to follow. Others will probably pile on.  Smog, air pollution, certainly things that affect rich and poor alike. And depreciate property value, so probably hit the rich a bit harder than the poor in terms of dollars.  China is also adopting California like laws, and, having been in Bejing 20 years ago, it was certainly in need of an air clean up. Then.  Much worst now I think.

Also new to me, just last night, was the discovery at our new Whole Foods store here of special parking places for electric cars.  I parked last night next to a space reserved for electric charging vehicles, and saw it had an electric connection kiosk.  So, pregnant ladies, handicap folks, and now electric vehicles seem to be getting special parking places.  

A friend in Northern VA had a Toyota XLS hybrid (fabulous car, I rode in it, super quiet in town and smooth) and just got the top of the line, perhaps plug in Prius. He says he loves it, and takes it on long trips – heads up GPS projection and other advanced things make his prior vehicle look sort of obsolete.

As someone wrote somewhere “There will come a day when we will laugh at the good ole days, when we poured a flammable liquid in our cars, and then sat just above it in the back seat while on the trip”.  On we go.

Flu Shots for 2012 - 2013

This will be a short post.  Flu Shots are available and everyone (in my opinion) should get one.  I was not able to get one earlier because I had the sniffles.  But I got one tonight at Walgreens (no charge with whatever Medicare insurance provides) and discovered something new:  Over 65 you are now recommended to get the HD version of the shot, which is more powerful.

I was not aware of that. It is new this year.  It is “optional”, although recommended for those over 65.  I took the HD version and have had no side effects (so far) and they said I wouldn’t have any.  By going at nearly 10 PM, I didn’t have to wait at all, and had an excellent person administer the shot.

I have had pneumonia shot (once in a lifetime I think) and earlier this year I had the shingles shot (also once in a lifetime I think).  Shingles vaccine was very scare at times this year and last, but is now available in decent quantities, but might still have to be special ordered (it has a very short shelf life at the pharmacy, and it must be in a freezer I think – and transported to the pharmacy in a freezer equipped truck).

Stay healthy, share any of your experiences with shots by commenting here.

Update On The NEST Thermostat (Award Winner)

http://www.gottabemobile.com/2012/05/18/nest-learning-thermostat-review-installation-first-impressions/

On August 1^st, of 2012 I posted to this Blog something on the new Nest Labs home thermostat.  It stays in the news, they have just upgraded the design to make it thinner and even more attractive.  And it has new software.  It is a true revolution in energy conservation at home, and just one a new “best in the show” award from a major publication. 

The founders led development for the iPod and iPhone and left to form this company.  Don’t miss a chance to check this one out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEx2Iznm3eA

CNET ran this YouTube on the install and were a bit worried about the $250 price.  However, I have just put in a new system in a vacation home, and a normal, programmable, thermostat was also $250.  So I am not sure the price is as much a barrier as they say.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8TkhHgkBsg

A nice little advertising video, it’s pretty cool, huh?

http://bestideastoday.blogspot.com/2012_08_01_archive.html

Check out my original Nest Blog if you don't remember this product. This post covers the earlier version of the Nest.  I couldn’t find a handy YouTube for the new-and-improved Nest. 

Copying Old VHS Tapes to DVD - Professionally

I have been looking for a reliable, high quality, and reasonably priced service to copy all my old VHS tapes to DVD for a long time. These are, like most families, tapes we made of our children when they were growing up and of important corporate events at our company. This search for the ideal transfer company has gone on for years, mostly on line, as local services haven’t seemed to be either reasonable in price, or have the super high quality equipment needed to make really good DVD’s from such sources as VHS, Hi-8, and so on. It takes more than just copying.  In the past, I have found some inexpensive sources, but they don’t take much time to fix and correct and don’t have the best technical equipment.  I am now convinced if I am going to do it, I want the best.

So, I am about ready to try this on-line source  https://archivalcompany.com/

The Archival Company.  They have been in business a good while, and seem to do government work, and have proprietary software and nice features such as

1.      an engineer will observe the run, adjust color and make it as good as possible

2.      blank spaces will be removed

3.      you can, as an option, view it on line and make edits or add titles before they burn the DVD

4.      extra copies are only $4.95, a reasonable price for a burned DVD

5.      the best part: One price fits all -- $10.95 per tape copied.  Inbound freight free.

6.      nice testimonials give me a little confidence

https://archivalcompany.com/videotape-to-dvd.asp   check out the options

They also do 35 mm slides.  For 44 cent each.  Not cheap, but 1,000 slides should do most families, and that would be $440.  Perhaps worth it. Your images will be scanned at 3600 DPI.  After scanning the originals, they crop, rotate and color correct the images as part of the service.   Your original media is returned along with a disc containing your still images in JPEG or TIFF format. You may order additional "project disc" copies, containing all of your images for family, friends or even for safe-keeping at $4.95 per extra disc.
 
As part of this service, they will keep a digital copy of your images for 1 year.  If you need a disc replacement, they can do it.   They have spent years developing their process.  They proudly stand behind their work with a quality guarantee.

So, I will start with maybe 10 VHS tapes and see how it works.  Do more if they come out good.  If anyone has a better source, please leave a comment so we can all have that information.

Do You Have Unclaimed Money?

An article in the State Paper on finding if you have some unclaimed money somewhere was interesting.  I ran my name through and all my family members, it found much money, but none of it was exactly ours.  It was similar names, and in states where I doubt our family has any unclaimed money.  But it showed me there is a lot of money out there.  It would pay you to look, including checking all your parents, living and deceased. 

Here is a tiny excerpt from one of the stories:

 http://www.stltoday.com/business/track-down-your-share-of-unclaimed-billionsarticle_579aa569-5d5a-5c29-8441-54c884cb0710.html



State treasuries alone are safeguarding 117 million instances of unclaimed money, worth about $33 billion, according to the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators, or NAUPA. Here's what you need to know and where you should go to search for your unclaimed cash:

• Missingmoney.com is a combined database of many unclaimed property lists in the United States.

• NAUPA provides links to state unclaimed-property websites at unclaimed.org. Some state sites include lost property not listed on Missingmoney.com. More important, some big states, such as California, New York and Illinois, are not on Missingmoney.com. Check any state in which you might be owed money, said John Gabriel, president of NAUPA.

Savings bonds: Search treasuryhunt.gov for U.S. savings bonds and marketable securities, such as Treasury bills, notes and bonds. For example, you can search for matured E and EE savings bonds issued after 1974 that are no longer earning interest. And you can search for interest payments you might be entitled to from H or HH savings bonds, said Treasury spokeswoman Joyce Harris. You will have to provide a Social Security number or employer identification number to search. The site also has downloadable forms for claiming lost, stolen or destroyed bonds.

Pensions: The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. has a "missing participants" service at http://search.pbgc.gov. There, you can determine whether you are owed benefits from a corporate pension plan that was closed or taken over by the PBGC. You also can track down benefits if you are a survivor of a person who should be drawing the pension. This refers to the older type of defined-benefit pensions, not 401(k)-type plans.

• Failed banks: If you have reason to believe that you or a relative has unclaimed money from a bank failure during the end of the savings-and-loan crisis 20 years ago, check the database at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. at http://www2.fdic.gov/funds/. It covers deposits from Jan. 1, 1989, to June 28, 1993.

New App's to consider for your Smart Phone

A recent magazine listed two apps, neither of which I was familiar with.  One is a nearly perfect GPS app, the reviewer says is as good as Garmin and has some advantages:

1.      it will pull street addresses out of your contacts, or vendors, which might make it easier to navigate, no new input required for those

2.      it is equal to most specialized Navigation devices the reviewer says, and this one will figure the traffic ahead and route you to avoid it and arrive in the best possible time.

3.      you would need a windshield mounting device, suction cup or something

Now the bad news.  It is called Navigon Mobile – Navigator.  (navigon.com)  and costs $100, the most expensive app I have ever seen.  Probably just for iPhone, not sure.

Another big app recommendation was Viper – already downloaded by 100 million people.  Allows a user to text message, and do Skype type calls (better than Skype) over the internet, all for free.   Skype is worried, and might try to buy the company.  It is located in a dictatorship (Belarus) but they get inexpensive workers there, the home base is really in Israel.  Source:  Businessweek Magazine.

Vinyl vs. Digital Sound For Home Music Systems

Bet you thought that debate was over.  But Fortune Magazine just ran this article and I got interesting in the 91% number quoted.  Read below.

(Do old records really sound better?  By Omar Akhtar, Fortune Magazine Sept 3, 2012)

“They do.  Think of MP3’s, the format of most digital copies, as the sonic equivalent of Cliff Notes: a summary of a recording’s highlights.  There’s the beat, the melody, verse, and chorus, but not the subtle variations in pitch, resonance, and volume.  In fact, some 91% of the information is lost while converting to MP3.  Vinyl not only retains greater sonic information, it adds a rich harmonic “warmth” as the needle hits the spinning grooves.  Of course vinyl decays while digital is (theoretically) forever.  If you really love an album, spend the $15 for the record… but also keep a digital copy on the cloud.”  Omar Akhtar

Ormar revives the old debate there, and of course I grew up with vinyl and loved it, but the clicks and scratches eventually made me switch over to the CD format.  But I still have lots of vinyl, and I am slowly converting it to MP3, using the special turntable called Ion.  It is a quality unit, and I like how it works.  I use a program I downloaded that will take the input and convert it to MP3.  So far I have not listened to these newly created MP3 versions on quality equipment to tell whether or not it has done a decent job.

If anyone cares to comment, just leave a post with your experience with vinyl, and or the conversion.